In Egypt, the film Feathers arouses the indignation of the supporters of the "new Republic"

Hide this poverty that I cannot see!

The film

("Feathers"), awarded at Cannes this year, is controversial: crowned Best Arab Fiction at the el-Gouna festival on Friday 22 October, some accuse it of

of Egypt.

Directed by Omar al-Zohairy, the feature film, half absurd half social painting, tells the story of a woman - Oum Mario - who suddenly becomes the sole source of income for the household when a junk magician transforms her husband… as a hen!

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by Julia Ducournau, Palme d'Or in Cannes, will represent France at the Oscars

Theatrical reaction if necessary. While attending the screening on Tuesday, October 19 in el-Gouna, on the Red Sea, the famous actor Chérif Mounir left the room in protest.

[the setting]

he declared the following day in the very followed television talk show of Amr Adib, known for his positions to promote.

[…]

, he added.

The "new Republic" is the flagship slogan of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who has made the abolition of informal housing, accused of cutting down arable land, one of his priorities.

HLM buildings are popping up all over the country and appearing in clips in public media every day.

Freedom and insult

Walaa Gad, the boss of this great project called "Hayat Karima", "a dignified life" in Arabic, did not want to tell a local media to support

, deputies hastened to follow in the footsteps of Chérif Mounir.

They accused the film (yet the first Egyptian feature film to win the Critics' Week award, scouting new talent, in Cannes) of

of the country.

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Feathers

has not yet been screened in cinemas, but on Twitter, the very loyalist deputy Mahmoud Badr, criticized him for

.

Conservative lawyer Samir Sabri, who has sued numerous celebrities claiming that their words or behavior were harmful to Egypt, filed a complaint against the producers of the film for "insulting Egypt and the Egyptians".

With an all-amateur cast,

takes place in a village that is never named or located.

The actors, mostly Coptic Egyptians - the main Christian minority in the Middle East with around 15% of Egyptians -, however, speak with the accent of Upper Egypt, rural and southern.

After receiving his prize on Friday evening, Mr. Zohairy, also awarded two days earlier by the American magazine Variety, told AFP that he had made

.

He nevertheless agreed that

.

34 million poor

According to the authorities, nearly a third of the 102 million Egyptians live below the poverty line.

The figure has been on the rise since the 1990s, but it is said to have officially declined for the first time last year.

The most affected are

says Oussama Diab, researcher on socio-economic rights.

And the

has only worsened their plight, he says.

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censored in Egypt

At the end of 2016, Egypt devalued its currency and launched a series of drastic austerity measures in exchange for a loan of 12 billion dollars (about 10.3 billion euros) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The institution praised in September the resilience of the Egyptian economy, one of the only emerging markets to record positive growth since the Covid-19, but it is not interested in the poverty factor, regrets Mr. Diab.

For the film critic Tarek al-Chennaoui, the accusations claiming to be patriotism are

.

, the film is

, he said to AFP on the red carpet of el-Gouna. The director has managed to

[the main actress,

], of

,

.

, Mr. Chennaoui added. On the contrary,

.