Director of Egyptian singer Ruby’s upcoming film (Sabi’ Warak Qusheeh), Sharif Sabri, has decided to postpone the release of the film, which is scheduled for screening on the 23rd of this month, until he returns from his trip to Belgium. The director revealed that he wants to supervise over all the alterations the Egyptian Censorship Committee demanded before the film is released to the public.
According to the London based Elaph, Sabri will look through the final details of the film, which will mark his first cinema direction, on his own and then travel to Cairo to pave the way for the official launching. It has been revealed that around 52 cinema houses have been reserved for the screening of the film, which the director believes will find great success due to the participation of Ruby. An advertisement campaign will be launched on different satellite and television channels, in addition to posters around Egypt.
The Censorship Committee has deleted seventeen scenes and three songs out of six, marking the first time throughout history that this many scenes are deleted.
Dr. Madkour Thabet, head of the Censorship, announced that he supports the decision of the member of the Censorship especially after he watched the film himself and considered it harmful to public safety and social values. On his part, Sharif stressed that he will not accept the decision of the Censorship, especially since this much deletion of the film looses any real meaning it may have.
Sharif announced that he will not give in and will fight the decision and take it to a higher authority, demanding that a new committee watches the film once more to give a final verdict on what is necessary to delete. Sabri was previously forced to make major alteration on the script to convince the censorship to give it permission for screening.
Recently, Ruby faced a new lawsuit against her, this time by music distributor Ahmad Al Jabali demanding 5 million Egyptian pounds in compensation from the singer. Ahmad stressed that Ruby had signed a contract with him in 1997 giving him full rights to all her entertainment activities, and making any other contract signed since that period invalid.
The contract has been automatically extended for five years, based on a condition in the contract that states an extension for five years will be made unless one of the two parties states otherwise. Neither Ruby nor Ahmad had requested otherwise and so the extension occurred giving Ahmad rights to Ruby’s activities until the year 2009.
On her part Ruby refused to give out any comments regarding the lawsuit. The singer added that she will leave the matter for the court to decide, and she is hopeful a verdict will be reached in her favor.
Ruby is also scheduled to stand trial after being accused of practicing the profession of singing without obtaining a permit from the Egyptian Music Syndicate. The trial date has been set to be in mid-June after, the head of the Syndicate, Hassan Abu Saoud, filed a lawsuit against the singer because she has broken the law. –Albawaba.com
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