The back-and-forth banning of midnight film screenings has made recent news. Injy El-Kashef ponders the dynamics at play Over the last couple of months, the rumours around last October's sexual harassment incident downtown had somewhat quietened down -- that is until news of a ban on midnight screenings stirred the issue up again. A number of Egyptian bloggers had posted pictures and explicit accounts on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr 2006, describing the alleged sexual harassment of dozens of females -- reportedly with and without a veil, with and without male escorts -- at the hands of a mob numbering up to 1,000 young men who chased, groped and stripped them opposite Metro Cinema. The women allegedly attempted to flee, only to be chased by the frenzied mob who, the bloggers claimed, broke down windows when shop-keepers attempted to offer the women refuge. Although the incident was the talk of the town, with eyewitnesses testifying to horrific details, when interviewed on television programmes Interior Ministry officials denied the incidents, stressing the fact that no reports had been filed at police stations to substantiate any such claims. Two weeks ago, however, press reports referred to a ban issued by the Interior Ministry, preventing the continuation of midnight cinema screenings. The so-called ban, though, was almost immediately rescinded, following the exchange of information between the head of the Chamber of Cinema Industries Mounib Shaf'i and the Interior Ministry's Anti-Vice Squad, responsible for implementing the regulations. A top-ranking Interior Ministry source, speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on customary condition of anonymity, asserted that "there is no ban on midnight screenings per se". Rather the official, routine checks on the entertainment industry revealed some cinemas' need to acquire the proper permits from their respective governorates enabling them to run the late-night shows. "The procedure's timing is in no way related to the harassment rumours of last Eid. This is a routine check on permits, no more; and the ministry is not even directly involved. Cinemas must process their permits with the governorates to which they are affiliated." In his Landmarks Series, historian Samir Raafat traces the steps of Metro Cinema Theatre, the very cinema where the notorious Eid Al-Fitr mob harassment attacks allegedly took place. "Built according to plans sent from MGM Hollywood" the new art deco theater was the first to introduce air-conditioning in Egypt which made its three o'clock screening the preferred summertime rendezvous for Cairo's white-collar professionals. "The theater section of the Metro was composed of an upper and lower hall, and a beautifully appointed foyer with a smoking room decorated with paintings," while the offices featured "quaint desk top lamps and art deco accouterments". Imagine that. Come to the screenings in question, Raafat elaborates on Cinema Metro: "And there were those wonderful midnight seances when selected old movies were shown. These performances had their very own clientele occupying the same seats at each new showing." Midnight screenings then evolved. In the words of film critic Essam Zakariya, "In the 1970s and 80s, movie theatres did not have year-round midnight screenings -- they were reserved for Ramadan. The audience would then leave the cinema, have the pre-dawn meal and call it a day." The times, they have indeed changed. And, just as there are no more Umm Kulthoum Thursday concerts for which the audience dressed to kill and sat in a haze of hashish smoke, without a pin drop to be heard while the diva caught her breath, there are no more midnight screenings in reclining chairs, or with the family in Ramadan. Radwa Kamal, a midnight movie habituée, asserts that she feels no sense of threat whatsoever as long as she stays away from downtown. Kamal says she enjoys "walking downtown at night" -- in the company of male friends or relatives, she is quick to add. But, "as soon as the cinemas open their doors and the crowds rush onto the street, an immediate sense of threat is engendered". In her view -- and she is certainly not alone -- midnight shows should "only be banned from downtown theatres. But the upscale cinemas pose no threat to women, as they operate in a controlled environment, with cameras everywhere." Veteran actor Nour El-Sherif strongly begs to differ. "Young men who attend midnight shows clearly do not have a job to wake to and that is the problem that needs to be addressed," he protests. The actor adds that "we should thank them for going to the movies, and for spending their time away from any other occupation that does indeed pose a threat to society, given their harsh circumstances." In the actor's opinion, should upscale cinemas alone be permitted to obtain the proper paperwork allowing their midnight screenings to go on, that would be an attempt to right a wrong with another wrong. "How many unaccompanied females actually go to midnight screenings? And as for claims that harassment has gone as far as to reach women in the company of their husbands, I refuse to believe those who claim that we are, basically, savages; in fact I denounce such media exaggerations relying on gratuitous accusations." El-Sherif elaborated that the incidents of mass harassment that took place during Eid Al-Fitr -- as reported by bloggers and eyewitnesses and denied by the Ministry of Interior -- happened at a time of "festive release" when mob behaviour can be explained. But to think that this phenomenon is a trend, El-Sherif opines, is wrong. "The real issue that must be addressed is: why are these masses up so late? But since they are up, it is a very good thing indeed they are at the movies and nowhere else." According to a report by Agence France Presse, Muslim Brotherhood MPs had raised last October's harassment issue in Parliament, demanding investigation into the purported incidents. But then again, as the Muslim Brotherhood's has become the only audible voice to be heard in the socio-political arena -- as a result of the sudden death of the many political movements that had temporarily sprouted like benign herbs before they were plucked out -- almost everything is attributed to the MB of late. From the bankruptcy cases of automobile giants Al-Forsan and Al-Rabie to the midnight screening ban, rumours have come to include the MB's influence everywhere. El-Sherif, for one, never believed such allegations, and in fact finds the thought rather distasteful. "These are irresponsible claims. People have become very negligent with accuracy and ride on the wave of any rumour without checking the facts. I do not believe the MB to be behind the ban." Speaking to the Weekly, Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Dr Mohamed Habib confirmed that the MB had nothing to do with the so-called ban on midnight screenings. "The Brotherhood MPs may have discussed the harassment incidents at the Shura Council in its larger implications, in an attempt to draw an analysis and possible cures to prevent similar events in future, but it has no authority to issue any bans," Habib said. To a direct question on the Brotherhood's position vis-à-vis cinema (is cinema halal, or haram? -- to be exact), Habib's response was that cinema is most definitely not haram, and that the MB does not oppose the cinema industry whatsoever. "Cinema is a tool that helps refine taste, that affords pleasant entertainment and that in fact contributes to the shaping of the Muslim and Arab identity. Bad films are bad; good films are good. And cinema is not haram," the MB representative confirmed. It may be safe to assume, though, that the deputy supreme guide would not have approved of the cinema's daring move when, in the 1960s, and "despite its nationalisation, Cinema Metro had enough clout to make yet another first when it projected the uncensored version of Michelangelo Antonioni's pop culture parable Blow-up (1966) in which Vanessa Redgrave featured wearing tight Levi's and a naked torso," recounts Raafat. That, after all, is cinema -- and such is the legacy of Metro.
