Cairo (AFP)

Already in decline for several decades, the Egyptian cinema industry, once nicknamed "Hollywood of the Arab world", has just suffered a new blow with dark rooms deserted due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

From Damascus to Baghdad via Algiers, Egyptian film culture has long dominated and influenced the Arab world.

During this golden age that took place in the middle of the last century, internationally renowned artists emerged, such as actors Gamil Ratib, Omar Sharif and director Youssef Chahine.

Then the decline began notably with the withdrawal of state subsidies in the 1970s and the production of lower quality commercial films.

Audiences also fled Egyptian theaters in the years of political instability following the 2011 popular uprising and the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

But according to professionals in the sector, the health crisis linked to the new coronavirus is having unprecedented repercussions.

"This year has marked great losses for the Egyptian film industry," actor Sherif Ramzy told AFP.

Movie theaters, which closed in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, began to reopen tentatively in early summer, with the government imposing a capacity of just 25%.

And the releases of the films were delayed as well as the shootings.

- Complete stop -

"The industry was completely at a standstill for about four months", explains Mr. Ramzy, estimating that the partial reopening of the rooms did not help "to restart the machine".

Only one film was released this summer during the Eid al-Adha holiday, a comedy called Al-Ghassala (The Washing Machine). Normally six or seven films are released at this time of year.

Nearly 100,000 cases of the new coronavirus have been detected in Egypt, according to official statistics, and medical experts fear, as elsewhere, the arrival of a second wave in this country of 100 million inhabitants.

Several Egyptian personalities, including leading actors, have tested positive for the new coronavirus after the filming of the traditional Ramadan series in April.

In July, actress Ragaa al-Guiddawi died at age 81 from Covid-19 disease.

The film sets, which can hold more than a hundred people, have partially emptied. Make-up artists or costume designers, forced to have physical contact, were unable to continue their activity.

According to the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES), the sector has at least half a million employees, 40% of whom are permanent.

“We paid the staff for months and had no income,” says Ramzy, who runs a production company.

Sector revenues reached 60 million euros for 33 films last year, according to ECES.

Despite the drop in revenue, Egyptian cinema remains the first in the Arab world "in terms of income", according to the same source.

"The forecasts for 2020 are much lower," laments producer Mohamed Hefzy. "We will have to wait for the full return to normal, maybe next year," he told AFP.

- Online platforms -

All over the world, lockdown has forced moviegoers to turn to online services.

In Egypt, they mostly chose the Watch iT application, launched last year.

In March, "the service saw a sharp increase in subscriptions with more than 30% of daily users," Moustapha Bekheet, one of the managers of Watch iT, told AFP, citing an increase in users of "more than 89 % "during Ramadan.

During the month of Muslim fasting, the service, which already owns the rights to more than 65,000 hours of online content, acquired new rights, notably for TV series.

According to Mr. Hefzy, the transition to online platforms is "a natural development, which the Covid-19 has only accentuated".

These platforms cover losses for producers during the pandemic, he adds while acknowledging that they "cannot replace movie theaters".

“The cinema experience remains unique and important, it should be preserved,” he believes.

© 2020 AFP