The Administrative Court rejects the lawsuit of Umm Kulthum’s grandchildren to stop showing the movie “The Woman”

The Third Circuit of the Administrative Court, headed by Counselor Dr. Fathi Mohamed Sayed Hilal, Vice President of the State Council, ruled to reject the case and obligate its plaintiffs to pay expenses and attorney fees.

The court said after watching the entire film that what the plaintiffs relied on regarding the work’s abuse of Umm Kulthum and her reputation “has no echo in reality,” stressing that the film reviews her career from her upbringing in the village of Tamai Al-Zahaira until her death in Cairo, and focuses on the difficulties and challenges she faced at the beginning of her artistic career before reaching her prominent position in Egypt and the Arab world.

The court explained that the film also dealt with aspects of Umm Kulthum’s relationship with her father and brother, in addition to her role in serving the nation, considering that the general image presented by the work of the artist and her family was positive, and that the appearance of some scenes that include moments of weakness or brokenness does not necessarily mean insulting her or diminishing her status.

The court confirmed that “The Six” is a dramatic work and not a documentary film, and therefore it is not required that all its details and dialogues match historical facts, but rather it is sufficient that they be derived from reality and interact with it, especially since the makers of the work made it clear from the beginning that it was “inspired by real events.”

She pointed out that dramatic works, by their nature, have room for imagination and creativity in dealing with characters and events, and that what is included in the film falls within the freedom of artistic expression protected by the constitution, and it cannot be treated as the absolute historical truth or a documentary reference for the life of Umm Kulthum.

A number of Umm Kulthum's grandchildren had filed a lawsuit demanding that the film's license be withdrawn and its showing be halted, against the backdrop of their objection to what they considered to be an insult to the biography of the "Lady of Arab Singing" and the reputation of her family, in a lawsuit that came after a wave of controversy that accompanied the work since its announcement and release to the public.