Exodus: Gods and Kings was expected to cause stir among both movie critics and religious parties before its official release date, due to the Old Testament based story of the production. It seems that Ridley Scott’s choice to tell the tale of leader Moses and Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses was not a quite inspired one, as the feedback received was both positive and negative and the box office reported quite modest figures even in the release day (numbers which visibly decreased in the next period of time). Now the adventure-drama battle was banned in both Egypt and Morocco due to what critics consider to be ‘’historical inaccuracies’’.
Deadline has been tackling on the delicate matter of Exodus’ release in Egypt for weeks, taking into consideration the fail of Noah (other Biblical movie, thus controversial for religious parties) to reach the audiences, but now the banning of Ridley Scott’s drama is certain. If in the case of the March released Darren Aronofsky tale of the Great Flood, the highest religious authority in Sunni Islam, Egypt’s Al-Azhar, was the one who commented on its release, Exodus met with the disapproval of Abdul Sattar Fathi, head of the Egyptian state censorship board.
Fathi insisted to point at the historical inaccuracies in the movie, causing thus the perfect argument to sustain the non-release of Exodus in Egypt: “One of the key historical mistakes made by this film is that it claims the Jews were the ones who built the Pyramids.” His plea continues: ‘’The film treats Moses as an army general, not as a prophet. Furthermore, it shows ancient Egyptians as a mob group persecuting peaceful Jews.’’ The Egyptian head of the censorship board ended his speech with a heart-felt remark which was meant to appeal to the large crowds: ‘’Our board has refused this out of respect for Egyptians’ feelings.”
Egypt’s minister of culture seemed at first to be the one to sustain the release of the Moses movie, but he later on resigned from his position as defender of Exodus, and joined the camp of mister Fathi. Gaber Asfour, also a well-respected critic and professor of Arabic literature, commented that Exodus ‘’totally contradicts proven historical facts’’ and that “gives a Zionist view of history and contains historical inaccuracies and that’s why we have decided to ban it.” With no one to vote for the Ridley Scott Biblical battle, it is no wonder that Exodus: Gods and Kings will fail to reach its 31 December 2014 established release date in Egypt.
In Morocco, the situation of the controversial movie is similar. Although the Moroccan Cinema Centre officially approved the airing of Exodus, now local reports share that the release of the Moses versus Ramses picture has been banned. Although no official statements of Moroccan authorities were quoted, the matter is not debatable. Deadline also pointed at the fact that with its Moroccan ban, Exodus has been dismissed from the location where parts of the movie were actually shot. It now remains uncertain if Exodus: Gods and Kings will face hostile treatment from religious parties of other countries or not and whether or not the picture will add other locations to its ‘’not-released’’ list.