WHEN Hany Fawzy finished editing Family Secrets, he thought he had made one of the first Egyptian films to focus primarily on homosexuality. Then Egypt’s censors watched it. After 13 requested changes, Fawzy fears their edits will turn the protagonist’s love affair with another man into a romance-free friendship.

“His relationship will seem like a heterosexual relationship,” said Fawzy, a seasoned screenwriter making his directorial debut with Family Secrets. “It’ll mess up the film. You won’t be able to understand the psychological dilemma of the character, or his relationship with others.”

Family Secrets tells the story of Marwan, a young man who visits five psychiatrists in an attempt to “cure” what society has led him to consider a disease. Those who come out to their families in Egypt are often encouraged by their parents to do the same.

According to Fawzy, there are no sexually explicit scenes in the film but censors want to cut 13 details, including shots of Marwan resting his head on another man’s shoulder in a cinema, and a crucial conversation about homosexuality between the pair in bed.

The edits, which Fawzy has appealed against, are the latest hurdle the film has had to overcome. Fifteen actors turned down Marwan’s role owing to the film’s subject matter before Mohamed Mahran agreed to it. Two changed their minds after signing a contract. “One did so after his father threatened not to pay his college fees,” said Fawzy.

Censors exercise tight control over all films in Egypt and screenplays must be approved in advance. But Family Secrets is likely to have drawn such a harsh reaction because it is one of the few to focus on homosexuality, a taboo for many Egyptians.

Those who challenge sexual conventions are often ostracised by their families and sometimes targeted by police. In October, police raided a gay house party on the outskirts of Cairo, and also arrested several people at a sauna known as a meeting place for gay men elsewhere in the city.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt but those arrested are sometimes charged with offending public decency — or on spurious drugs charges. “We had two revolutions — but people’s minds haven’t changed,” argued Fawzy.

“People don’t want to talk about the three taboos — politics, religion, or sex. Some are scaring us artists from making movies about these things and it forces the whole industry to work on silly topics in order to get their work shown.”

Rare though the film is, its plot has nevertheless also angered many gay Egyptians, who expect it to imply that homosexuality is something to be ashamed of. “From what I have read, it deals with homosexuality in the way that everyone does — that it’s a disease, and that we are not pleased with ourselves, that we want a cure,” said Ramy Youssef, known as the first Egyptian to come out on Twitter.

“This isn’t something that can be presented as a disease,” said Mahmoud, an activist concerned with gender issues, who did not wish to be identified. “It’s what concerns me most — that this false psychiatry, the idea of converting people from gay to straight, which has been copied from the west, is recognised as therapy.”

Some welcome the possibility that the film might at least create a debate about sexuality. But Mahmoud fears too much publicity might instead prompt a backlash. “More debate doesn’t necessarily mean more progressive outcomes,” he said. “It might motivate more conservative groups to react, or police to make a raid. Debate and exposure is not always helpful.”

—By arrangement with the Guardian