I can prove the headline above with the two examples below. Note: Each one is a quote from an Egyptian film.
Example A: “Ya monyat al nafsee da2emat al khaledah Ya 2onsolat al kalb fe kol zaman we makan. Mahma we mahma nakaltee, 3endama yowshoko al korso al a7mar… fa 2ozkoreenee” – From Bain El Atlal (1959)
Example B: “Adeek Fel Jerken Terken” From Kallb Al Assad (2013)
After reading both examples, you’re either crying or laughing (or most probably both). Well, if you haven’t gotten the gist already from the above examples, please let me explain:
This generation – yes, OUR OWN DAMN GENERATION – is guilty of killing anything resembling culture. Plain and simple, We Are Culture Killers.
Why you ask? Honestly, I don’t think there is a clear answer. But, I have a theory and a very strong one at that.
First of all, let’s get the B.S. out of the way. So before any one responds to this article by saying “Well, culture died the moment _(INSERT DICTATOR HERE)_ came to power!” or “Culture died because we’re a third-world country! Our poverty rate is the highest it’s ever been!” or “Culture died because idiots like you haven’t done anything to save it!” – before you say any of that, let me just say that I agree with all of the above.
But they are fragments, or crumbles if you will, of why we are in this situation to begin with. The biggest missing piece of the puzzle for why culture is fading into oblivion is, once again… us. And only us. For the past year or so, we have been playing The Blame Game, pointing our fingers at certain people for why this is happening – anywhere but at ourselves.
I’ve seen constant attacks on people such as Tawfik Okasha, Mortada Mansour, Dr. Alaa Abdel-Aziz (Egypt’s Minister of Culture under Morsi) and finally film producer Ahmed El Sobky, framing them as the reason for the demise of Egyptian culture. Granted, this is true, in a way. Half of them have single-handedly killed most of what’s left of intellectual awareness and artistic achievement in this country. But others have taken blame when in reality the culprit is staring right back at you in the mirror.
One of the people who I think has taken far too much of the blame is the last name I mentioned earlier, Egyptian film producer Ahmed El Sobky. Some might have the gall to say that he is the most financially successful film producer in all of Egypt. He has produced many films, honestly far too many for me to name. But to give you an idea of the kinds of films he makes, you first need to know his trademarks or “style”.
TRADEMARK#1: He always, ALWAYS has to have either a belly dancer/sexy Lebanese singer/plain dumb bimbo in one of his movies.
TRADEMARK#2: He always, ALWAYS has to have said woman slapped – and slapped hard(!) – by the leading man in any of his films.
TRADEMARK#3: He always, ALWAYS has to have some kind of Egyptian street singer or group singing at a wedding, waving their knives and drinks in the air and dancing as if they just had an epileptic fit.
Let me be clear on one thing first: I know Mr. El Sobky personally. I’ve met him and his son on numerous times due to my line of work. But this isn’t why I’m defending him – or at least explaining why he shouldn’t be in the firing line with the other names. True, his films aren’t helping, but he shouldn’t be getting all this hate. The reason I’m defending him is actually very simple: We shouldn’t be blaming him completely because really all he’s doing is his job. And doing it right if I might add.
Mr. El Sobky’s mission as a producer is to do one thing only (in his eyes at least) and that’s to make money. Anything else is meaningless. His son runs an arm of the company that produces high-end films such as Cabaret and El Farah. So when people blame him for “The Destruction of Cinema” it really confuses me. Why are we attacking this man? Is he forcing the audience to buy a ticket and see his movies?! Isn’t he just giving the audience what they want?! Obviously, the audience is happy. The box office numbers prove it.
Now, I’m positive that most of you right now think you have a good answer to fire back at me. I can tell you right now, even before I hear it… You. Are. Wrong.
Yeah, I know. I sound pretty obnoxious right? And you’re not wrong. But if I would take an educated guess, your answer would be something like this: “But the audience who goes to watch El Sobky’s movies isn’t ‘everyone’ and isn’t like us, really. They are uneducated to a certain degree and haven’t been opened to different cultures and ideas like us. ” Which, of course, is not their fault. WRONG!!!
You (and I), dear reader, are as equally responsible as the El Sobky-loving audience in killing our beloved culture. When you kill culture it has no level. No class system. No limit. Culture can be killed by the High class just as the Low. How many people do you (yes, you specifically) know who play Candy Crush or flip through Instagram instead of reading a good book or going to the theater to watch a good play? Yes, you can do all these things together, but come on! Honestly which one do you do more?
How many weddings do we have that are basically Egyptians upstaging each other by being over the top and ridiculously extravagant? How many websites do we have that are basically a Night Life Year Book of all your friends? But instead of “Best Smile” it’s “ Sexiest Dress” and instead of “Most Likely to Be the Next Noble Prizer Winner” it’s a scaling system of how HOT (OR NOT) you are.
By the way, I go to all these places and I check all these websites. So I am as guilty as anyone else. Also, I know how pessimistic and negative I sound. Sometimes I might be, but really most of the time I’m not. Because I think we might have a theory that can save our culture and end this pessimism once and for all.
What we need to do is steal a chapter from Director James Cameron’s book. By that, I mean his philosophy in his work: Don’t give the people what they want, give them what they need.
Did we want the film Titanic before it was released? Hell no. But did we need it? Some would say yes. Did we want The Matrix? No. Before that film, I couldn’t even fathom watching something like that. It was almost impossible to comprehend. But did we need it? Of course! It changed the way we watch cinema. Avatar and so many other films did the same thing.
But this theory isn’t only for films. It can be for anything – music, art, literature, sports, and even people. Did we want people like Omar Samra, who became the first Egyptian ever to climb Mount Everest? Maybe, but honestly I never even knew the guy existed before what he did. Do we need him? God yes! More than ever. He gives Egyptians hope, he makes us want to follow our dreams and change history just as he did. Did we want a website like Naqeshny.com, a social network for debating and solving ideas and problems? Nope. Do we need more websites like it? You know the answer.
In the end, it’s just a theory. But I’d like to think that in the fight between Culture versus Ignorance, hopefully Culture will win and prevail. It has to. And we are the solution.
WE SAID THIS: Check out The Top 10 Arab Films of All Time.