“A great distance has been travelled in time, space, and even within the mind since that spring night in 2004 when I sat inside one of the Renaissance cinemas in Assiut, captivated by the epic drama The Last Samurai. It was only natural, back then, to walk out of the cinema deeply moved by the samurai’s heroics—not just because of the extraordinary ability of Edward Zwick, the great American director, to marshal his tools to create a poetic drama that directly appeals to the viewer’s emotions, but also because the film’s message was filled with nationalistic sentiment. especially with the similarity of the cultural crisis and crossroads that the nation (the Muslim world) was facing, as the literature of political Islam was gaining prominence as a project opposing Western domination, in contrast to the general submissiveness of Arab political regimes—like what the ‘Japanese nation’ experienced in the second half of the 19th century.
“The emperor is fond of everything Western, and the samurai are worried about it. They feel things are moving too fast… as if the old and the new are fighting to define Japan’s identity.”
The samurai, with their strength, bravery, nobility, authenticity, and determination to fight to the last drop of blood in defence of their ‘identity,’ seemed remarkably like the Islamic resistance movements ideologically opposing the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the couageous fighters of Hamas in Palestine, and so on.
Now, after all these years, and after the significant event of 2011 and its countless, ongoing repercussions, we can rewatch the film considering the great distance that has been crossed—in time, space, and in mind. What will we see now?”

_  Sherif Thabet