1969 ‘المومياء’ Directed by Shadi Abdel Salam
Set in 1881, a year before the start of British colonial rule, it is based on the true story of the Abd el-Rasuls, an Upper-Egyptian clan that had been robbing a cache of mummies they have discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling the artifacts on the black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members made a crucial decision when the Antiquities Service arrived.
The Mummy, Al-mummia, The Mummy: The Night of Counting the Years
Mohamed Radwan's #8 Film Selection for Edgar
The British occupation of Egypt began in 1882 and was extended until 1956, two years later after the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 1954. Al-Mummia takes place in 1881. That is important.
Often credited by Egyptian critics and worldwide connoiseurs alike as one of the most important Egyptian films ever made - and if I am allowed to say, my third favorite film from Egypt - Al-Mummia is one incredible, spectacular and thought-provoking masterpiece about the search of a national identity, where the stellar cinematography and a haunting score are barely the technical highlights of a deeply symbolic testament made not with a camera, but with a collective heart.
Based on a true story, Al-Mummia…
they went to the desert and did not come out alive. heavy as the wind specked with dust. tired as the guardians of tombs with no faces. as eerie and vague as an unmoored boat with blue markings. many reviewers have chosen to focus on the conflict between the living- the city folk looking to save the tombs of the old pharaohs and the mountain folk grave-robbing for survival. it's the dead that shade this whole film for me however. are we nothing but the product of people who lived long ago? how do we carry the legacy of a nation against a legacy of our immediate family?
the characters stand upon nothing but graves. their desires and passions and…
For humanity, a required viewing. A film that takes place in turning point of nation's history makes it feels as if it is the turning point of the whole world; when dead suddenly gain their names and the mystery of death is beginning to solve itself. With Daesh today destroying cultural monuments, Westerners forgetting their histories and think that they speak with the voice of their nation whereas the echo of the history, the lessons of that great entity are forgotten and the voice becomes hollow, full of hate, the shock of this film is especially great today. Namely it describes moments when humanity (presented as a clan here) starts finding and defining itself again, Wannis' looks on his face…
An Upper-Egyptian clan robs a cache of mummies and sells the artefacts on the illicit antiquities black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members goes to the police, helping the Antiquities Service find the cache.
Bit unfair to rate and review The Night of Counting the Years because I must disclose to have fallen asleep during a good portion of it, but I (1) don’t have much desire to revisit this in the future, and (2) do hold Shadi Abdel Salam accountable for making me.* Besides, we’ve all been there right? I’m not just taking after my mother for whom TV is the best hypnotic/sedative in the world, right? (Give me some confirmation here guys). The Night…
انتاج عربي في 1969 لفت فيه انظار عالم السينما لمصر لقيمته الفنية والمجهود المبذول فيه وحرص المخرج شادي عبدالسلام رحمه الله على ادق التفاصيل من ازياء رائعة والاماكن الصحراوية التي تم التصوير فيها بل وان المشاهد قام برسمها قبل تصويرها واخرج عمل فني رائع لحدث وقع في مصر
اكثر ما لفت انتباهي فيه هو الحوارات الاكثر من رائعة وزاد جماله كونه باللغة العربية الفصحى اعطت الحوارات فخامة اكبر ومشاهد الدخول لمقابر الفراعنة مع الموسيقى المستخدمة تشعرك بالغرابة الموجودة في المكان و فعلا شيء مرعب اتمنى بيوم ازور الاماكن الاثرية الفرعونية لما فيها من إرث حضارة قديمة عظيمة
استغرب لماذا لا يتم صنع افلام بهذه الافكار والقصص التاريخية الرائعة في وقتنا الحالي مع وجود الامكانيات والتقنية لكن اغلب التركيز ينصب على افكار سوقية مكررة ونحن كعرب نمتلك امكانيات لعرض ثقافتنا وافكارنا للعالم بشكل لائق و المومياء خير مثال
بعد انتهاء الفيلم يعرض وثائقي قصير يحكي عن كيفية انتاجه والجوائز الحائز عليها ومقابلات مع الممثلين انصح بمشاهدته
الموتى...هل هذا عيشنا؟
Hailed as a neorealist classic, it’s neorealism in the way that Rossellini (who produced the film) was around this time, which is to say stylistically far beyond using the camera to ape a first-hand perspective with practiced lack of artifice. There are elegant compositions here of men dwarfed against inhospitable terrain, or arranged just so in group compositions. Some startling early shots place Wannis on the stairs descending into stone toward a family dwelling within the rock, frozen as his family does their peddling and the camera does a mild Hitchcock dolly-zoom to stress his alienation from the life he knew.
Other moments are as powerful. Wannis looking on in horror as his tribe and family loot an Egyptian grave,…
Tale that transcends time and place with its spiritual imagery. As melancholic as it is beautiful and profound in ruminating the presence, loss and permanence of cultural legacy.
Absolutely stunning in every way.
a very hypnotic, eerie and mysterious film, illuminated by some sequences of striking beauty.
I loved it. 10/10
20 Film | 20 Countries
1. Egypt 🇪🇬
اية دة هو انتوا مستنيين رأيي فالفيلم بعد كل الريڤيوهات اللي قريتوها، اية هقول إن بعض القرارات الإخراجية معجبتنيش ولا أسلوب السرد غير موفق؟
يا راجل دة واحد من أعظم الافلام المصرية والعربية فالتاريخ عمل أصيل ومتفرد جدا وبيناقش قضايا مختلفة ومهمة من خلال أحداثه وشخصياته ومر ١٤٠ سنة ومازال في وسطنا قبيلة الحربات وعظيم جدا علي المستوي البصري كل كادر ممكن تصوره كلوحة فنية لوحدها والحقيقة شادي عبد السلام ملحقناش نستفاد من إمكانياته بشكل أكبر وخصوصا إنه توفي في حسرة علي فيلمه أخناتون اللي لم يتم إنتاجه وانا شخصيا حزين علي عدم إنتاج الفيلم لأنه كان هيبقي من الكلاسيكيات وتصوير عظيم للحضارة المصرية بعيون شادي ونقلة كبيرة للسينما المصرية.
ملحوظة: انا…
Egyptian cinema has long been one of my biggest blindspots; but I've already known the reputation which The Night of Counting the Years has built for itself over the years as one of the most important of Egyptian films. It's easy enough to see why, because it's truly something out of the ordinary, a film that's so ominous but otherwise beautiful - something I was always in awe of from start until finish.
It's truly something spectacular from beginning to end, but finding out that this was based on a true story only struck me out of the blue - and made it something I'll want to revisit again at some point in the near future.
a hypnotic and haunting tale told through the whistles of the wind and the stillness in the shots. it was all so beautiful.
