Film on Egypt's Jews cleared for showing

Commercial screenings of documentary following lives of Jewish community were delayed by censorship board

The director of a documentary on Egypt’s Jewish community said Wednesday that authorities had lifted a ban on showing the film in local cinemas. Amir Ramses said on his Twitter account that the film would be screened in movie theaters starting March 27.

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The “Jews of Egypt” follows the lives of the Egyptian Jewish community in the 20th century until they left in large numbers under duress in the 1950s. It was screened in Egypt last year in a private film festival after it was approved by censorship, a regular procedure in Egypt.

Last week, the film’s producer, Haytham el-Khamissy, said he heard from the chief censor that a security agency he did not name asked to view the movie before granting it a license to be shown in theaters.

The Egyptian security agencies had held up the screening of the film a day before it was due to debut in local cinemas, the film producer had said in a statement last week.