Soad Hosny, Egypt’s ‘Cinderella of the Silver Display’, sends a textual content message to heartthrob Omar Sharif. “I miss you, Omar,” she writes, as Sharif selections up a swish smartphone and appears up, his charming eyes observing ahead in teary nostalgia.
Reduce to a shallow focal point medium shot of Hosni, texting vigorously; her conventional animated spirit shines via as she smiles at her telephone, imploring Sharif to restore the nice previous days, then texts 3 crimson middle emojis.
However there’s a catch: Hosni’s been useless for nearly 25 years, lengthy sooner than smartphones existed, and Sharif since 2015.
Even though you ignored the transparent AI tag on final Ramadan’s YouTube video, you can realize the faces are too easiest, that the backgrounds are immaculately staged and that the pearly whites of all 21 deceased actors featured on this AI-generated four-minute track video have been just too flawless to be actual.
Synthetic intelligence is hastily reshaping the Egyptian movie and tv trade, sparking each pleasure and unease in a rustic lengthy thought to be the ‘Hollywood of the East’.
For greater than a century, Egypt has been the thrashing middle of Arab cinema, shaping regional storytelling and immortalising icons like Sharif and Hosni. Now, AI is opening new doorways for creativity, price‑saving productions, and enhanced storytelling, however on the chance of blurring the traces between innovation and moral compromise.
The controversy comes amid a contemporary announcement by way of Egypt’s tradition minister a few nationwide plan to restore the rustic’s movie trade.
The talk escalated dramatically with the collection Esh Esh, starring Mai Omar and Intissar, which aired in March 2025.
The display sparked vast debate after actress Intissar printed that the dance scenes that includes Omar have been bodily carried out by way of a frame double, amid hypothesis about AI ways getting used to composite Omar’s face onto the dancer’s frame.
Native media thought to be that director Mohamed Sami could be the primary to combine synthetic intelligence with human efficiency in Egyptian dramatic enhancing, elevating rapid questions on authenticity and target audience deception.
This incident highlights a broader pressure as Egypt grapples with the position of AI in its cinematic renaissance. Director Amir Ramses warns in opposition to over-reliance in this generation, drawing parallels to the “digital cinema” revolution that each stored and probably compromised the trade.
“Digital cinema opened the door to producing new types of films, but at the same time contributed to establishing a culture of ‘shortcuts’ that harmed artistic standards,” Ramses tells The New Arab.
But he recognizes AI’s attainable for decreasing manufacturing prices, bettering backgrounds, and engaging in visible results with precision throughout all cinematic genres.
Omar (R) famously identified for movies reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia and Physician Zhivago kicked the bucket on 10 July 2015 [Getty]
Colossal prices
The sensible advantages are plain, as Ramses illustrates with the creation of drones. He explains how drones revolutionised aerial filming when it up to now required dear helicopter leases, making such photographs prohibitively expensive to supply.
“Today, drones have become a basic element in most productions, which is what I expect artificial intelligence to do if properly utilised,” he says, emphasising that maximising receive advantages calls for prime talent in managing the generation.
For Egypt’s bold revival plans, AI represents a strategic cornerstone. The Ministry of Tradition has introduced a complete nationwide plan to get better the trade, organising a specialized unit for restoring and digitising heritage movies with unparalleled precision and pace.
The plan encompasses updating studios and historic cinemas, reactivating state-owned cinematic belongings, and creating primary amenities, reminiscent of Cinema Town and Al-Nahas and Al-Ahram studios, with state of the art post-production applied sciences.
The industrial implications are staggering.
Sameh Fathy, a member of Egypt’s Cinema Trade Chamber, explains that the normal recovery of a unmarried movie prices between EGP 100,000-120,000 (GBP 1,500-1,800) and takes a few month, with over 30 experts running on it.
His corporate, Konuz, has restored greater than 40 heritage movies at a value ranging between GBP59,000 and GBP71,000. With the state protecting roughly 250 movies and artists’ heirs proudly owning a equivalent quantity, the dimensions of attainable financial savings turns into transparent.
Ezz El-Din Ghoneim, Managing Director of the Cinema Preserving Corporate, affiliated with Egypt’s Media Manufacturing Town, sees AI as transformative for protecting Egyptian cinematic heritage.
“This technology provides advanced capabilities for automatically removing scratches and impurities, improving image quality and raising resolution to superior levels, restoring original colours, and purifying sound,” he explains.
The time aid is dramatic — from months to only days.
Ghoneim tells The New Arab that the recovery unit throughout the conserving corporate will use AI-supported programmes to supply high quality virtual copies whilst protecting creative identification via specialist supervision.
Warming as much as AI
Impartial filmmakers are already experiencing the democratising results of AI. Brief movie director Youssef Suleiman recounts how the generation helped him organise manufacturing levels, write scripts, document voice, execute dubbing and enhancing, and design movie posters “in half an hour instead of months,” saving vital prices whilst opening wider paintings alternatives.
Documentary director Ahmed Fouad El-Din in a similar fashion praises AI for shortening analysis time and establishing fabrics, despite the fact that he emphasises that “human creativity remains the foundation — technology can develop an innovative idea but cannot innovate from scratch.”
Alternatively, trade transformation brings uncomfortable realities. Director Moataz Hossam believes that “the ability to deal with artificial intelligence will become a decisive factor in maintaining any professional’s position in the cinema industry.”
He issues to threatened specialisations like movie colouring and predicts dramatic team of workers discounts, the place “tasks that were performed by six people could later be accomplished by just one person relying on these technologies.”
However some critics stay deeply sceptical about AI’s inventive boundaries.
Magda Khairallah argues to The New Arab that “film is a creative work based on thought and imagination, and will not succeed if it relies entirely on artificial intelligence, which may lead to idea repetition and poor artistic standards.”
She sees generation as probably efficient for visible results, “but it is not suitable for creating a complete scene or innovating a unique plot without human intervention.”
Creativity as opposed to suspicion
Artwork critic Magda Morris raises considerations about transparency and creative integrity, noting that judging AI’s have an effect on relies on whether or not creators recognize its use or audience uncover it themselves.
Morris suspects that some screenwriters keep away from acknowledging AI use for worry of being puzzled about their inventive skills, as mechanical writing ceaselessly unearths itself via vulnerable plot good judgment and personality incoherence.
As Egypt stands at this technological crossroads, the steadiness between alternative and authenticity stays a very powerful for the way forward for Arab cinema.
Whilst AI guarantees price financial savings, enhanced recovery features, and democratised manufacturing gear, questions on consent, the security of creative heritage, and cultural legacy persist.
The trade oscillates between embracing the enticements of contemporary generation and protecting its original identification — a pressure that can most likely outline now not simply Egypt’s cinematic revival, however the broader evolution of filmmaking within the virtual age.
As Morris warns, AI’s infiltration into core inventive processes, in particular drama and discussion writing, “may threaten artistic value and create crises within the text, as plot, characters, and dialogue require a human sense that algorithms cannot fully replicate.”
Shimaa Elyoussef is a contract Egyptian journalist
This piece is printed in collaboration with Egab
