Yousry Nasrallah Condemns Arrest of Canadian Filmmaker in Cairo

In times of political turmoil, foreign journalists and filmmakers often fall victim to attacks, their stories muffled by government actors or vigilante groups. This reality is typified by the arrest of Canadian filmmaker John Greyson and his partner, London-based physician Tarek Loubani, on Friday.

According to the documentary director's friends and family, the two were detained by Egyptian police in Cairo around 10pm. The Hollywood Reporter said Loubani called a friend in Canada, Justin Podur, alerting him of their arrest. Podur told the Toronto Star, "He basically said 'We're being arrested by Egyptian police.' I don't know where they were arrested and I don't know where they are now."

The two were travelling from Cairo to Gaza, where Loubani was supposed to do volunteer medical work. Greyson was planning on filming his work their, as preliminary research for a film project.

Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah condemned his arrest via Twitter, writing "The great Canadian director John Greyson. A champion of the Palestinian cause. Shame on his arrest in Egypt. I demand his immediate release." Nasrallah had previously tweeted about the director, particularly in reference to his refusal to travel to Gaza through Israel.

Greyson won a special jury prize at the Toronto Film Festival in 1993 for "Zero Patience," and later won the Teddy prize at the Berlin Film Festival for "Fig Trees" in 2009. "Fig Trees" documents AIDS activists in South Africa, and has been described as an "operatic documentary" for interweaving the activists' experiences with opera performances and sequences relating to a fictional Gertrude Stein.

Canadian authorities have said they are aware of the situation, and are working with the embassy in Cairo and local authorities.

This past week has witnessed unprecedented bloodshed, as the military-led interim government cleared the two pro-Morsi sit-ins at Rabaa el Adaweya and Nahda Square, resulting in violent street battles between Morsi supporters, many of them armed, neighborhood residents, police and military police.