The Egyptian Movie Syndicate is suing Columbia Pictures on ground that the television movie “Sadat”, shown on independent television channels throughout the U.S. last year, was “damaging and distorting” to Egyptian history, according to reports from Cairo.
The film, purporting to be a biography of the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, dealt at length with the events that led to his decision to make peace with Israel. Shawki el-Sayed, a lawyer representing the Syndicate, was quoted as telling a judge in Cairo Monday that Columbia Pictures was “a group of Zionists.” He called the film “a crime.”
The suit seeks two-year prison terms for six individuals, including Columbia president Patrick Williamson and the producers, director and writers. The film has been banned in Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak said on a television interview recently that it contained factual errors and was disrespectful of Egyptian history.
There was reportedly resentment in Egypt that the title role in “Sadat” was played by a Black American actor, Louis Gosset Jr. The late Egyptian President was said to have been “sensitive” of his dark complexion inherited from Sudanese ancestors.
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