this film which dreams of Hitler’s grandson to “liberate Palestine” – L’Express

The meeting, in 1941, already had all the makings of an improbable event: the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al-Husseini, legal authority of the Muslims of Palestine, had gone to Berlin to propose an alliance to Adolf Hitler. Nazis and Arabs united against the Jews. The Führer then assured the Mufti that the extermination of the Jews would benefit the Arab populations and that they should under no circumstances be allowed to build a state in Palestine. In return, Al-Husseini promised to form “an Arab legion” to fight alongside the Nazis. In fact, the Mufti will subsequently recruit a battalion of several hundred men to integrate the Axis forces.

Decades later, this meeting remains a fantasy factory, including in Israel. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not hesitate to affirm in 2015 that it was the mufti of Jerusalem who had inspired Hitler with the idea of ​​the final solution. A historical distortion, denounced at the time by historians and the Israeli opposition: in November 1941, the Nazis had already killed tens of thousands of Jews and Hitler had had their extermination in mind for a long time.

An “anti-Semitic film from start to finish”

At the start of 2024, an Egyptian film puts a coin back into the conspiracy machine. A Century and Six Years, a 17-minute short film, boasts a shocking pitch: a descendant of the mufti of Jerusalem finds the grandson of Adolf Hitler in Berlin, so that he can keep his grandfather’s promise and “destroy the Jews to liberate Palestine. The two men reach an agreement to fight against Israel, but their plan will be undermined by the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

The film’s script was spotted at the end of January by the Israeli press and its anti-Semitic character provoked a wave of indignation, while hatred of Jews was experiencing a worrying increase due to the war in the Gaza Strip. “This film is anti-Semitic from start to finish, it normalizes the call for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” writes the center-left newspaper Haaretz, denouncing the presence of a Nazi flag on the film’s promotional poster. Same observation of Jerusalem Post, which emphasizes that “anti-Semitism and admiration for the Nazi regime are nothing new in Egypt”.

If the film is not enjoying popular success for the moment, due to a lack of theatrical release or online distribution, it is frequenting film festivals in the Arab world. In January, A Century And Six Years won the Jury Prize and Best Actor at the Sharqiyah Festival in Oman. “After the flood of Al-Aqsa [NDLR : le nom donné par le Hamas à l’attaque du 7 octobre contre Israël]we salute the importance of the cinematographic work dedicated to the Palestinians”, justified the organizers of the festival in the Omani media. At the beginning of February, the film was screened as an opening of the Kairouan Cinematographic Days, in Tunisia, before obtaining a monetary reward. The Tunisian festival did not respond to requests from L’Express.

Same silence from the director, Mohamed Nassef. His production company explains to us that the young filmmaker “categorically refuses any interview with the press because of the smear campaign he is subjected to and from which he suffers.” The director nevertheless indicated to the Egyptian magazine Qalam having achieved its objective “by provoking the reaction of the Israeli media”. In this interview, he also describes Mufti Al-Husseini, who incited pogroms and relayed Nazi propaganda in the Arab world, as Palestine’s “first resistance fighter”. Furthermore, the anger of the Israeli media is now used to promote the film: the announcement of its screening in a theater in Cairo, this Thursday, February 16, is accompanied by a message indicating that this short film “does not leaves no one indifferent, in particular the Israeli press which criticizes him.

In his interview with Qalam, Mohamed Nassef says he decided to withdraw his film from several film festivals, including that of Clermont, because of media attacks. A thesis quickly refuted by those responsible for the Clermont-Ferrand international short film festival, which was held from February 2 to 10. “The film was submitted, like around sixty Egyptian short films, but it did not pass the first selection stage,” the committee explains to us. According to its production company, A Century and Six Years should soon be screened at a festival in Dubai, before being broadcast on the Internet.