In Egypt, the president is a Ramadan TV hero

Egyptians are being treated to a blockbuster TV series that honors their army general turned president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as they observe the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

“Al-Ikhtiyar 3” (The Choice 3) is praised by fans for educating the public about Egypt’s difficult recent history. Critics regard it as propaganda from a dictatorship that reigns with a heavy hand.

While the first two seasons focused on soldiers fighting Islamist radicals and national security agents, the third season centers on Sisi, who is 67 years old.

The 30 episodes, which were viewed by millions after the traditional iftar sunset feasts, depict the career of the then-defense minister, who toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, on his way to becoming the country’s president.

Sisi himself told a reception this week that Al-Ikhtiyar “tells exactly what happened at the time”.

Sahar Salaheddine, a columnist for state-owned newspaper Al-Goumhuriya, praised the army-sponsored series for “showing the love the people have for their president”, and the actors for being “soft power… soldiers”.

Yasser Galal, the primary actor, is said to have perfected Sisi’s demeanor, including his slightly raised eyebrows, pursed lips, and characteristic whisper.

However, criticising Galal’s performance, regardless of his acting abilities, might be harmful.

Lawyer Nabil Abu Sheikha was jailed on April 11 after ridiculing the performance on Facebook, according to the Egyptian Front for Human Rights. He was accused of “disseminating false information” and belonging to a “terrorist” organization.

While state prosecutors declined to comment on the matter, local media stated that Abu Sheikha was being tried for an old case, citing anonymous “security sources.”

Writer Shady Lewis Botros argued in an editorial that Galal’s performance evoked “equal amounts of admiration and ridicule” and that, “like the regime’s entire propaganda machine, it becomes a mechanical replication of itself”.

– ‘Educate new generation’ –
The film studios of Cairo, long regarded as the Hollywood of the Arab world, have made on-screen heroes of Egyptian presidents before.

In 1996, “Nasser 56” told the story of Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal in a two-and-a-half-hour black and white epic. In 2001, his successor Anwar al-Sadat got his own biopic, “Days of Sadat”.

But Al-Ikhtiyar isn’t looking to the past, said one of its screenwriters, Baher Dowidar. He argued the series will serve as nothing less than “a history book” 50 years from now.

The goal, argues the local press, is to “educate the new generation” about Egypt, where over half of the 103-million-strong population is under 25.

Those who do not remember the summer of 2013 must be shown “the state’s efforts to protect them from terrorism”, said one state-owned newspaper.

– ‘Unforeseeable turmoil’ –
The show is a fictionalized look at the final 96 hours in the power of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi, who was elected in 2012 following the Arab Spring protests and who died in prison in 2019.

The army deposed Morsi then violently crushed protests by his supporters in what Human Rights Watch called “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history”.

According to the trailers, a series of leaked tapes reportedly exposing Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Morsi, would be a feature of the TV show.

In one recording, Morsi threatens the late field marshal Mohamed Tantawi, who was the de facto president at the time, with “unforeseeable unrest” if he does not win the presidential election.

Despite the fact that the series never credits the footage’s source, it appears to have been shot by the military without the knowledge of the Islamist authorities.

In an official complaint, lawyer Sherif Gadalla claims that the video proves Tantawi used to “secretly film his visits” and that the tape should never have been leaked.

Gadalla, a staunch Sisi supporter, accuses the show’s director and producer of the leaks rather than the Egyptian government, claiming that “the Egyptian state apparatus is far too intelligent to be the source of the leaks.”

Another lawyer, Khaled Ali, a renowned figure on the left, had a quite different reaction to the show. He claimed that if the show is factually correct, it confirms his client Abdelmoneim Aboul Fotouh’s innocence.

The lawyer contended that the show supports Aboul Fotouh’s assertion that he had no financial ties to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and announced plans to submit four episodes of the show to the court as proof. Aboul Fotouh ran unsuccessfully against Morsi in the election.