The Egyptian art scene is in a state of controversy and confusion weeks before the opening of the 40th Cairo International Film Festival on 20 November. The reason is the desire of the festival management to honor the great French director and writer Claude Loulouche.
Many directors and directors rejected the decision to honor the French director for his clear support for Israel, while the festival administration continued to honor. "Loulouche is not Zionist and we will not back down from honoring him," he said.
"All the talk about being a Zionist is just rumors and baseless," said Mohamed Hafie, the film producer and festival president at his 40th session.
"Not any director or artist who visited Israel considers him an enemy of the Arabs, and our behavior with this behavior will live in isolation and we will address only ourselves."
On the other hand, film critic Nader Adly said: "If you imagine that he came to the festival to get him out of isolation, this festival is recognized internationally and not isolated, and has already participated dozens of stars and directors from all over the world."
According to Adly, the French director is proud to have a very good relationship with the Israeli entity. "Why do we insist on honoring him?"
With a number of artists, producers and directors issuing a statement in which they refused to honor the French director, the festival administration issued an official statement saying that the Supreme Advisory Committee of the festival "met urgently, to study what was raised in the media and by some artists and intellectuals about Loulouche's relationship with Israel."
The statement called on artists and journalists to provide them with any document that includes a political position declaring the French director against the Palestinian cause or the rights of the Arab people, whether it is a political statement or a statement signed by him or any other form of political solidarity with the Israeli position.
Immediately after the release of the statement, Egyptian artists and media rushed to publish a statement attributed to the management of the festival confirming that they had retracted Loulouche's honor. However, the festival management denied this and invited the media to refer to it before publishing any statement on its behalf.