A portrait of the Copts, the oldest Christian community in Egypt, their links to ancient Egypt and, in the face of rising Islamic fundamentalism, their traditions and ways of confronting this growing threat to their existence.

Distribution

Director: Jocelyne Saab, DOP: Jérôme Ricardou, sound: Marc Julien, editor: Ann-Marie L’Hôte, production: France 3, copyright: Jocelyne Saab Association.

This film is part of the series entitled “Egypt…Egypt?” of the TAXI program on France 3.

Jocelyne Saab’s word…

“I fled Beirut to escape the war. I’ve been living the war for ten years, eleven years, filming it from every angle. Arriving in Paris and finding all this violence, all these images that we’ve been seeing for a week, is like finding a vicious cycle again. It’s also finding all the reactions that follow this violence and that I never want to film again. But the images are in the blood; that’s the reporter’s job.”

Interview prior to the broadcast of Egypt: The Cross of the Pharaohs, Taxi program, September 29, 1986.