MY KOLKATA EDUGRAPH
ADVERTISEMENT
Regular-article-logo Thursday, 07 August 2025

Ugly Americans star in Egyptian films

Read more below

DANIEL WILLIAMS LOS ANGELES TIMES- WASHINGTON POST NEWS SERVICE Published 20.03.06, 12:00 AM

Cairo, March 20: When secretary of state Condoleezza Rice visited this city last month, Egyptians had an unusual choice: watch her on TV as she expounded on issues of war and peace in West Asia, or go to a neighbourhood movie theatre and see her portrayed by a look-alike actress belly-dancing and placed in “adult” situations.

The film in question is The Night Baghdad Fell, which depicts Egyptian obsessions with war, sex and the US. Wildly anti-American, it has done a brisk business for two months, a long screen life for Egyptian-made films.

In Night, Egyptians fret about an American invasion of Egypt and the potential destruction of their capital. Americans are bullies, rapists and mindless killers. By the way, The Night Baghdad Fell is a comedy.

The film is only the latest bit of Egyptian pop culture to display deep unease about Americans. Beginning two years ago, they emerged as bad guys on Cairo stages. In one play, Messing With the Mind, the audience was ordered around by wild-eyed ushers dressed as Marines. In another, a Statue of Liberty was blown up in the lobby.

Ugly Americans began to emerge on-screen last year. In Alexandria, New York, director Yusef Chahine rebuked US attitudes toward Arabs. “No Problem, We’re Getting Screwed, a black comedy, told the tale of an Egyptian who sends his son to Iraq to deliver mangoes and then must travel there to get him out of an American jail.

Along the way, the father tumbles into the hole where Saddam Hussein was hiding, gets caught in insurgent crossfire, is arrested by the Americans and is taken to President Bush. Bush forces him to wear a beard and confess to bombing the American Embassy.

Somehow, the Egyptian escapes, outwits his captors, sells his mangoes and gets his son back home.

Egyptians are not the only ones depicting villainous Americans on screen. Valley of the Wolves: Iraq opened in Turkey last year and featured a Turkish hero who takes revenge on US forces that detain Turkish troops in northern Iraq. The on-screen Americans shoot up civilians at a wedding, firebomb a mosque and carry out summary executions. Torture at Abu Ghraib prison makes a cameo appearance.

“These movies show that there is paranoia everywhere,” says Nabil Shawkat, a humour columnist at the Daily Star newspaper. “In Egypt’s case, the feeling of impotence in regards to the Americans is a common feeling.” Not everyone considers the anti-US theme of Night valid. Many critics regarded it as sophomoric and a typical Egyptian effort to blame its problems on outsiders.

Follow us on:
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT