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Wanted: producer for blockbuster on Egypt's 'October victory'
Mon Dec 11, 12:53 PM ET
President Hosni Mubarak wants a blockbuster movie made on the October 1973 war when Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israel and crossed the Suez, the official MENA news agency reported.
It said Mubarak wanted a "high-quality film about the October war and the planning involved, and the film should include the great crossing by the armed forces, something still studied at military colleges" in Egypt.
Mubarak has instructed the defence and information ministries to cooperate and provide the financial, technical and human resources required to make this "giant production".
The 78-year-old leader, who in 1972 became the country's air force chief, said his memories of the war were still vivid and that he wanted the younger generation to know of "Egypt's great fighting spirit".
The war broke out on the Jewish religious holiday of Yom Kippur with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria.
After Egypt's crushing defeat in the 1967 Middle East war, when Egypt lost the Sinai, it was Mubarak who was tasked with rebuilding the air force for the October War of 1973 when Arab states recovered some of their prestige.
"In one blessed day of Ramadan, corresponding to the sixth of October 1973, our valiant armed forces accomplished the greatest of our victories. Thus Egypt overstepped the humiliation of setback and occupation," Mubarak said in a speech marking the 33rd anniversary of the war.
"The armed forces restored the honour and pride of the nation with their souls and hoisted Egypt's banner on the occupied land of Sinai, thus boosting the morale of citizens and the nation," he said.
Although the Yom Kippur war yielded mixed results for Arab states in military terms, it is referred to as the "October victory" in Egypt and has contributed to Mubarak's domestic prestige.
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