Alcohol, adultery and homosexuality: a film turns into a political storm in Egypt

Netflix wanted to strike a blow with its first pan-Arab production

, "the best friends in the world" in Arabic. Goal achieved. In Egypt, the most populous of the Arab countries, some are agitated to banish him and others rush to see him. It was the expected sensation of the beginning of the year: the film brings together well-known actors from Lebanon and Egypt, the two behemoths of Arab pop culture. And it is the remake of a successful Italian feature film,

, the French version of which,

, has already been a hit on the online platform.

Three days after its release,

, about a game between friends gone wrong, topped the ten most-watched films on Netflix in the Arab world.

But in Egypt, a lawyer has appealed to the Ministry of Culture and the censorship service to

a film which he says

and the very zealous MP Mustafa Bakri has called for a extraordinary session of Parliament to look into the matter.

Ban Netflix

The story is that of three couples - two Lebanese, one Egyptian - who meet for a drunken dinner.

During the evening, they put their cell phones on the table and playfully share each message or call with the whole group.

Wives discover mistresses, friends of betrayals, husbands of liaisons and the group that one of them is homosexual, in an almost closed door.

Read also

: after Egypt, China censors references to homosexuality

Moustafa Bakri, he claims to have scrutinized each plan.

Result:

, he asserts, while no erotic scene, not even a kiss, appears in the film, which Netflix prohibits under 16s for its coarse language .

The deputy, who regularly sets himself up as a guardian of morals, has gone on all the sets of the most watched talk shows in the country of 102 million inhabitants to demand nothing less than the outright banning of Netflix in Egypt.

The fault of

 ?

Showing a father talking to his daughter about her first sexual encounter after her mother finds condoms in her bag and

,

“There is a difference between not denouncing a phenomenon and encouraging it”

, replies film critic Tarek al-Chennaoui in a country where homosexuality is not expressly prohibited but where the repression of LGBTQ+ people has increased since the election of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi in 2014.

An actress criticized

And above all, argues Tarek al-Chennaoui, Egyptian cinema has never been cautious.

Nearly 20 years ago, audiences rushed into theaters for

, "

Nights" in Arabic, the story of four couples who tear themselves apart after a dinner with friends with, on the menu, male impotence, adultery and differences between social classes.

Several Egyptian films, including

, adapted from the novel by Alaa Al-Aswani, have already dealt with homosexuality explicitly.

And the height of irony, in 2016, the prize for best screenplay at the Cairo Film Festival was awarded to...

 !

Read alsoEgypt: 2 young people accused of waving the LGBT flag released

But in a country where conservatism and a rigorous reading of Islam have continued to progress, one woman is the focus of all the criticism: the only Egyptian actress in

, Mona Zaki.

On screen, she plays a woman caught between a stepmother who despises her and a husband who no longer touches her.

In the city, Internet users reduce the actress - who was playing in

alongside her husband Ahmed Helmi at their debut - to her sole status as a wife.

Rather than addressing her, they challenge Ahmed Helmi, one of the most famous Egyptian actors who is not in the Netflix cast.

, writes one.

Others go even further and ask him to repudiate her immediately.

,” retorts on Facebook Khaled Ali, a great figure on the Egyptian left.

.