and
Soheir Ramzi during shooting
The Guilty “Egyptian Censorship authority of artistic works” did not go through a crisis like that experienced in 1977 because of the film, The Guilty. The censor's permission to show the film led to the punishment of all the censorship calibres responsible for this permission..It also led to the issuance of new censorship laws. The Guilty was the fourth feature film by director Said Marzouk The story was written by
Naguib Mahfouz while the script and dialogue was written by Mamdouh El-Leithy, its events revolve in the form of a police investigation about the murder of a famous film actress during one of the nights, which included a large group of the various personalities of society..When these personalities are investigated as being accused of the crime of murder, it becomes clear that each of them has a crime of corruption no less than murder in its ugliness..This is a school headmaster who leaks the exam..and this is a doctor who performs abortions..and this is an engineer who cheats in construction. And so on. The film was blatant in exposing corruption in a way that seems strange to Egyptian cinema.. In addition to containing a large number of daring sexual scenes..But the film's screening in the official competition for the first session of the
Cairo International Film Festival and its excellent reception by international critics made the censors tend to the film that was allowed to be shown, especially since the movie
Al-Karnak around which censorship problems revolved in 1975 had been decided to show it by a political decision, which means that the world-state trend tends to encourage freedom of expression..Indeed, the censors agreed to show the film, which happened on September 23, 1976. In addition to displaying it in several Arab capitals. After the film was shown, the
Parliament received many letters from Egyptians working abroad calling for opposition of the film, because it offends them in the countries in which they work, as it exposes the deviations of Egyptian society and the corruption of many of its segments. The Council referred these letters to the Minister of Information and Culture at that time, Dr. Gamal Al-Atifi to take the necessary action. He decided to stop showing the film and transfer its entire censorship file to the Administrative Prosecution to punish the agency..Then he issued Resolution No. 220 of 1976 regarding tightening the basic rules for censorship of artistic works, a decision that filmmakers considered a crime against
Egyptian cinema, as the most important of its provisions was to ban all scenes, movements and phrases with sexual significance, prohibiting dance scenes, not showing crimes of revenge and taking revenge, not displaying suicide, not presenting social problems in a way that calls for spreading despair in the hearts of the masses. As for the oversight body, its head, “Excellent Moderation,” was referred to retirement and transferred, along with 14 others from the agency, to the Supreme Disciplinary Court on charges of gross breach of job duties.'''' ==See also==