Egyptians React To Nasser Film Often Seen As A Hero For Nationalizing Suez Canal

As the screen showed Gamal Abdel Nasser mounting the steps of a Cairo mosque, a woman’s voice rang out in the movie theater.

“I was there,” she said. “All Egypt was there.”

The movie, which chronicles Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal 40 years ago, is the first film about the Egyptian leader.

When it is shown, some audience members stand and applaud. Others mutter complaints at Nasser. Almost every scene brings comments from the darkened theater.

The emotion is a reflection of Nasser’s legacy. Twenty-six years after his death, Egyptians are still divided over whether to love or hate the man.

Nasser, then an army colonel, led the coup that ousted Egypt’s royalty in 1952. He headed the country through military defeats in 1956 and 1967, but was still regarded as the Arab world’s greatest leader at his death.

The film “Nasser 56” covers 100 days of his life as the canal was taken from British and French control - an event cheered by Egyptians and millions of other Arabs as a triumph over foreign domination.

The film was shot in black and white to evoke the era of Nasser’s presidency.

Nasser’s last information minister, Mohammed Fayek, said a film tribute to the man was long overdue. He blamed Nasser’s successor, Anwar Sadat, for trying to rewrite history and deny Nasser’s role in ushering Egypt to independence.

During the two-hour movie - produced for $500,000 by state-run television - Nasser is shown as a resolute leader whose main concern is for his people.

As well as running the government and army, he is depicted as a family man. While preparing to seize the canal, he finds time for a son’s birthday party. He also rejects an offer from the army to build him a free swimming pool.

For some critics, the movie is just propaganda - and a waste of state funds.

“The film is an insult to the intelligence of the people,” El-Menufia University history professor Abdel-Azeem Ramadan wrote in the opposition newspaper Al-Wafd. “Nasser was a dictator who ruled with iron and fire.”