Just over a year after it was pulled as the opening short film of the 2024 edition of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival by the country’s censorship board, The Last Miracle had been cleared to screen at the 2025 Cairo Film Festival.
The move has been welcomed by the indie film community as a sign of a more sympathetic approach from Egypt’s censorship board following the appointment this past spring of respected screenwriter and novelist Abdel Rahim Kamal as the head of the body.
There was consternation last year after the board revoked the screening license for The Last Miracle just 48 hours before its announced world premiere at El Gouna, despite having completed all regulatory approvals.
Cannes Palme d’Or-winning short and Oscar hopeful The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Croatian director Nebojša Slijepčević filled the empty slot.
Based on short story by late writer Naguib Mahfouz, The Last Miracle stars popular actor Khaled Kamal (The Blue Elephant, Clash) as a 40-year-old journalist who receives a phone call from a deceased Sheikh, which begins a spiritual journey of grief, faith and illusion.
Prior to its aborted El Gouna premiere, Shawky suggested the work also chimed with contemporary events in the Middle East, due to the fact Mahfouz had written the original story in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and Arab world.
It was not clear what prompted the Egyptian censorship board to pull the license, although there were suggestions the film’s themes of belief and spirituality, particularly within Sufi Islamic traditions, may have sparked disquiet.
It was also suggested that shooting locations inside Cairo historic cemeteries earmarked for clearance to make way for new roads and infrastructure projects may have been deemed politically inconvenient.
Whatever the reason, the cancelling of the El Gouna screening sparked widespread criticism and lobbying from the Egyptian cinema community, which was already sensitive to the issue of censorship following sanctions to a raft of indie features including Cannes Critics’ Week winner Feathers by a previous board.
Shawky welcomed the change of heart.
“This film was made out of deep love for cinema and for the people it hopes to reach. It was silenced before it was ever seen, but the voices that rose in its defense gave it a second life. I thank everyone who spoke or wrote the film’s name. Your support reminded us that cinema still matters and that stories must be told,” he the director
“It was a fierce and complex battle, but one that mattered deeply to us and to Egyptian cinema, which has always been a faithful witness to people’s hopes and sorrows. And now, the film returns to the city where it was born, to the audience it was made for,” he continued.
The film is produced by Amjad Abu Alala, Mark Lotfy, Baho Bakhsh, and Adel Abdullah, with Sharif Fathy, Safi Eldin Mahmoud, Abdelwahab Shawky and Boris Despodiv as co‑producers and written by Mark Lotfy and Shawky.
“Thank you to my incredible team for everything they gave to me and to the film, for their patience through all that happened, and for enduring a painful year of waiting for the film to be born,” said Shawky.
Leading Egyptian film critic Tarek El Shennawi, who was among the many supporters of the film, welcomed the overturning of the ban, suggested the reissuing of the license was in large part down to Kamal’s arrival as head of the board.
“The current censor, screenwriter Abdel Rahim Kamal, has proven in practice that censors are capable of passing all ideas when they possess the tools of persuasion and the desire to support freedom of expression,” he said in a Facebook post.
It remains to be see whether Kamel’s appointment and the approval of The Last Miracle heralds a sustained era of openness for Egyptian cinema professionals living inside or outside of the country.
The 46th Cairo Film Festival runs from November 12 to 21.
