Absent employees, empty offices, stacked files, and others busy with many things, not including work, endless requests between stamps, seals, and signatures, each of which has a long journey, and its conclusion is the phrase, "We miss tomorrow, sir."

With these repeated scenes, the makers of Egyptian cinema and drama presented their vision of the suffering of Egyptians with red tape and bureaucracy in government departments.

The famous phrase "We missed tomorrow" has become a symbol of disrupting the interests of citizens in government institutions, and an expression of the intransigence of employees and their adherence to routine and bureaucracy to the maximum degree.

While officials criticize what they consider an exaggeration in portraying bureaucracy and routine, the filmmakers say that they convey a realistic picture of the suffering of the citizen and the employee himself sometimes.

Many films presented an image of government bureaucracy and the intransigence of employees, some of which we monitor in the following lines.

Minister Jay

The late writer Ahmed Ragab was able to draw a comic, satirical picture of the phenomenon of bureaucracy and routine in government interests and disturbing citizens with endless requests, in his movie "Minister Jay", which was directed by Ibrahim Al-Shanqani in 1986, and was bold in addressing the issue despite being an official television production.

The film highlights the failure of employees to perform their duties, as they leave the government interest to spend on other work, while assigning a former employee - seeking to obtain his pension - to complete their work.

Citizens' interests are disrupted due to the absence of an employee who turns out to have died, and despite the participation of officials in the interest in his funeral, they adhere to the routine that prevents the appointment of a replacement, due to the absence of official papers proving his death, and they impose administrative penalties on him.

The culmination of the tragic comedy is when news of corruption and disruption of citizens' interests reaches the responsible minister, who made more than 9,000 statements to the newspapers, so he decides to visit the interest.

Instead of reforming the interest, its officials decide to deceive the minister and hire unknown actors (extras) to play the roles of employees and citizens.

During the visit, the minister finds a decent treatment for the citizen, whom the employee calls him by the nickname "Beh", and offers him hot and cold drinks, while the interest rooms are covered with banners bearing the phrase "Employee...the citizen pays your salary in full, as he is your master and you are his servants."

At a moment of merging with the citizen representative, he slaps the employee representative, to anger the minister and demand that he be handed over to the police. Here, the extras have no choice but to confess to the minister the whole trick, so that the officials accuse him of being a "plot and agent."

4 on official business

The late artist Ahmed Zaki presented in the movie “4 on an Official Mission” (1987) directed by Ali Abdel-Khaleq, the suffering of a young employee with bureaucracy and routine, which prevents him from achieving his dreams of traveling abroad.

The bureaucracy is evident from the first moments of the film, when the treasury holds an auction to sell the estate of my "monkeys" who had died: a donkey, a goat and a trained female chimpanzee. While the Egyptians bid for pounds and sharks, a foreigner offers 6 thousand dollars (10 thousand pounds at the time).

But the official refuses to sell, because the foreign bidder does not have a tax card, and argues that he might smuggle the animals abroad.

The young employee Anwar Abdel-Mawla (Ahmed Zaki) is assigned to deliver the estate to the "Bayt Al-Mal" in Cairo, and he believes that he will be able to finish his task in a few hours to catch up with his travel date, but Anwar's suffering with the estate extended for days, between absent employees, and an endless routine of Official papers, seals and committees.

The presence of an employee at his desk does not mean that the work is proceeding normally, as this employee leaves the citizens' queue in front of him and argues with one of them in a football match, and the other asks Anwar to search by himself in piles of files to obtain the required papers.

When the young employee sees a glimmer of hope in a government minister working to fight red tape and bureaucracy, he goes to him complaining, so the minister promises to help him, before discovering that he has become outside the ministry in the new cabinet reshuffle, which is a sign that warriors of red tape and bureaucracy have no place in the government system.

Terror and kebabs

The makers of the movie "Terrorism and Kebabs" did not find anything better than the giant Tahrir Complex building, the most prominent symbol of the government bureaucracy in Egypt, to embody the suffering of citizens with red tape and the disruption of their interests.

The Egyptian citizen (Adel Imam) goes to the compound to transfer his children from one school to another, but he encounters the government bureaucracy, where the responsible employee is absent, between a training course and searching for a human bathroom to relieve himself, while the rest of the employees are busy with many things, not including work, so the citizen gets involved in carrying arms, and the government treats him as a "terrorist".

In the 1992 film, written by Waheed Hamed and directed by Sharif Arafa, the scenes of human waves converging inside the ancient building are repeated, to illustrate the extent of the citizens’ continuous suffering for days and perhaps months to end their official government transactions that are hampered by bureaucracy and administrative routine.

The dialogue shows that citizens' complaints and requests - despite their simplicity - are not fulfilled due to the inaction of employees and the negligence of government officials, despite the slogans of citizen service that fill the walls of employee rooms.

Karate master

"I don't want this pension to be low... I don't want to die in the street and be wasted." In despair and anguish, the old widow (Zuzu Nabil) in the movie "Mr. Karate" (1993) repeats these words, to express her suffering with government bureaucracy, and her failed journey to obtain her right In the pension of her late husband, who served the government 37 years.

The simple young man, Salah (Ahmed Zaki), decides to help her, and takes her to the government department, in quick, short scenes that summarize the citizens' situation with bureaucracy, routine, and the complexities of the administrative system.

The elevators are broken in front of the citizens, as the signs indicate, so the old woman is forced to climb 6 floors on her feet.

The offices are empty of their employees, while the papers and notebooks that represent the interests of citizens are tampering with the air, and on the desk of the absent employee, and among the stacked piles of papers are sewing tools, evidence of the work the employee does that is not related to the nature of her job.

In the absence of employees, Salah breaks into the office of the general manager and presents himself as an important figure, to have the director come to his aid and hear the old lady's complaint, as he is not an ordinary citizen.

The old man’s conversation reveals the deadly routine that the manager justifies as “instructions and procedures.” The woman who went to the authority more than 6 times is required to have a certificate proving that she is alive, signed by two of the employees.

Despite the lady obtaining the certificate, the employees argued that the "eagle seal" (the symbol of the ancient Egyptian bureaucracy) is not clear, but the director, in front of someone who believes he is an important official, decides to approve the old lady's papers, so that her tragedy ends while the suffering of ordinary citizens continues.

black Honey

The movie “Black Honey” (2010) presented bureaucracy in the form of a corrupt, bribed employee (Abdullah Musharraf), who gives an “Egyptian” citizen (Ahmed Helmy) the choice between paying a bribe and completing his request immediately, or waiting in a long line and fulfilling several routine requests.

Masri refuses to pay the bribe, and his friend Saeed (Edward) reassures him that every request can be completed within 5 minutes on the computer, but the employee's requests never end.

And if modern technology made the extraction of documents faster, the intransigence of the employee made it a journey without end.

However, the film, on the other hand, presented the image of an honest employee, confirming the association of positives and negatives in Egypt, which is the message that the filmmakers say is behind choosing the name "Black Honey".

From cinema to drama

The portrayal of the difficulties of bureaucracy did not stop at cinematic films, but some dramas presented scenes that express this suffering, including the series “The Will” (2018) by Ahmed Amin, who is forced to donate his cornea to an employee to obtain his signature, and buys thousands of pounds of stamps.

The comedy program "Saturday Night Live" in Arabic also presented a comic clip about facing the bureaucracy that needs a magician to fulfill the requests of the obstinate employee, and despite that, he cannot achieve his interest.