In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Medhat al-Adl, scriptwriter and host of the TV show “Enta Horr” (You are Free), said he finished the script of his TV series “The Jewish Quarter,” co-starring Iman Nasser and Menna Shalaby, explaining that it talks about the Egyptian street in general and not only the Jews.
Q: How would you assess your new experience presenting a TV show?
A: I guess this is up to the critics and the viewers to assess, but from my point of view, I think it produced good results to a large extent. It allowed me to communicate with people. Before that, my communication was through the movies I wrote. Now I communicate with them three times a week. It also gave me a great opportunity to lay my hands on important issues.
Q: Is it true CBC 2 is closing down?
A: The owners can answer that, but as far as I am concerned, I will do the program elsewhere if this happens.
Q: Tell us about “The Jewish Quarter.”
A: The shooting will start tomorrow. I finished 25 episodes, for normally I start working on the the last five episodes once the shooting has started.
It talks about how Egypt once coexisted with all religions and embraced people from all over the world because it was a cosmopolitan country. Egypt was great then.
Q: Do you tackle this from an historical or from an economic perspective?
A: The economy is linked to history and to sociology. It does not talk about the Jews as such, but rather about the Jewish Quarter where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived. They were all Egyptians.
Q: Do you present the Jews in a positive or in a negative way?
A: The Jews were of Egypt’s fabric. They were Egyptians. They were traders who lived with Muslims and they contributed to the Egyptian economy.
The stereotypical portrayal of Jews in Egyptian films is that they are penny-pinchers and have big noses is not correct. They were the best merchants of Egypt.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
