Egyptian drama The Last Miracle has been replaced as the opening-night film of El Gouna Film Festival amid reports it had not been cleared by local censors.
The film, directed by Abdelwahab Shawky, was due to screen this evening (October 24) at the festival in the Egyptian resort town on the shores of the Red Sea.
However, a statement released today by organisers said there has been “an adjustment to the original lineup” as The Last Miracle “unfortunately could not be screened”.
In its place, the festival is set to screen The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Croatia’s Nebojsa Slijepcevic, which won the Palme d’Or for best short film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
No official reason has yet been revealed for the switch but it is understood that Egypt’s Central Authority for the Censorship of Works of Art (CACWA) refused to grant the required screening approval.
The Last Miracle is a 20-minute film starring Khaled Kamal (The Blue Elephant) as an obituary page editor, who faces reprimand from his manager after misspelling the name of a prominent Sufi sheikh. Distraught, he seeks solace in a bar, only to receive a surprising phone call from the deceased sheikh himself, requesting a meeting. The cast also includes Ahmed Siam, Abed Anani and Ghada Adel.
Based on short story The Tavern Of The Black Cat by late Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, the screenplay was co-written by Shawky and Mark Lofty of Egypt’s Fig Leaf Studios, which has credits including Cannes documentary prize-winner The Mother Of All Lies.
Shawky was an assistant director on Sudanese breakout hit You Will Die At Twenty, which won the Lion of the Future prize when it premiered at Venice in 2019 and later went on to win the top prize at El Gouna Film Festival. He has also worked with renowned filmmakers such as Yousry Nasrallah, Khaled Marie and Hatem Ali.
It is produced by Egypt-based Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, director of You Will Die At Twenty, through his company Station Films. Additional production partners include Baho Bakhsh and Safei Eldin Mahmoud at Red Star Films, Adel Abdullah’s Key Films, and Shoft Studios, with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC).
El Gouna Film Festival and MAD Solutions, which handles sales and distribution of the film, have not responded to requests for comment from Screen.
One of the leading film festivals in the Middle East and North Africa, the 7th edition of El Gouna is set to run October 24 to November 1.
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