Daoud Abdel Sayyed is a controversial director who has been accused of courting the box office through excessive sex scenes in his new film Muwaten, Mukhber wa Harami (Citizen, Detective and Thief).
“I believe this kind of controversy is normal because one of the most prominent and important functions of the cinema is to stir what is stagnant. I try to make every cinema production I participate in controversial to add something new to the people’s knowledge. This is my understanding of the proper art but the art that enhances dullness is not recognized by me,” the Egyptian director told the Kuwaiti daily al Rai al A’m.
He added, “there is no sex in the film but there is frankness and clarity in some scenes. I believe exploiting such scenes in the film is something absolutely normal. Perhaps the shock has been because it was the first time to tackle sex without coverage by love or something else. I believe sex can be sometimes an objective by itself.”
The film also arouses a wave of debate over choosing the pop singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim to play a starring role. But Abdel Sayyed thinks that “the charisma and the large audience attendance which the pop singer enjoys were not behind selecting him to play the starring role but I feel that the role as a thief suits Abdel Rahim best. I found in him all the traits of the thief, which I was looking for. I believe those who took a swipe at Abdel Rahim at the beginning have changed their minds after they had seen the film. For my part the betting was on how to direct the film to come out with the best results using the potential massive instinctive energy which is difficult to direct. This is in addition to the fact that I found that Abdel Rahim would give me rare potential to make a thrilling film exploiting his simple style and songs. The film has a carnival nature which has prompted me to select Shaaban Abdel Rahim and the rest of the cast.”
He added, “Hind Sabri is a promising actress. I saw the three films in which she played starring roles in Tunisia and despite she is young she won many important prizes including the prize for best actress in Tunisia. Despite the contradictions between Hind and the other two actors Khaled Abu al Naga and Shaaban Abdel Rahim, I found that this combination would serve the main theme of the film.” -- Albawaba.com
