You may not be aware of it, but Egyptian actor Mahmoud Yacine and Lebanese singer/actress Haifa Wehbe have something in common!
While Wehbe's 2013 film "Halawet Rouh" (Rouh's Beauty) was temporarily banned in Egyptian cinemas last year - coincidentally, the ban was lifted last month - Yacine's film "Hait Al Butoolat" (The Wall of Championships) was banned from screening for TEN years.
Yes, you read that right! But now, a decade later and much to the joy of its cast and crew members, the film has finally screened at the Cairo International Film Festival in November, reported Laha magazine.
Yacine, his wife Shahira and their two children attended the movie's debut, which received a standing ovation thanks to the actors' solid performances and Adel Husni's adept production.
Yacine, who played the late Field Marshal Mohammed Ali Fahmy, former Egyptian Army chief of staff and commander of the Air Defense Forces, said that he was overwhelmed during the screening, adding that there was no legitimate reason for banning it this entire time.
The reasoning behind the ban was due to the film's failure to mention the important role of aviation during the famous October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, or Yom Kippur, as the Israelis refer to it.
