La momie

Not sure how I came across this film, but I'm soooo grateful I did, it's a masterpiece: an art-house film that carries the power and mystery of Ancient Egypt.

The story unfolds in the 1800s. An isolated Egyptian mountain clan sustains itself by exploiting Egypt's ancient heritage. When there is a shift in power, the protagonist is presented with a moral dilemma: continue the old ways, which are immoral, or find some new, as yet unknown path forward? In the end, nothing is clear: there is no uncontestable good or evil in anyone's actions.

The film has a powerful mood of portentous mystery that's sustained from the first frame to the last. The film moves slowly, and in doing so, gains a profound, immersive depth. The characters speak slowly, poetically, with every word of great significance. Some of the acting is unforgettably strong, including the roles of Wanis, the archaeologist, and some of the clan elders. The score, of dark distant droning Egyptian music and surreal wind and atmospheric sounds, adds to the foreboding mood. The cinematography is incredible, especially the bizarre and stunningly beautiful prolonged final sequence.

The film may ultimately be taken to be a philosophical inquiry into how we can or should relate to the traumas of past. If the existing relation is harmful, how to find a new way? And how to be sure the new ways will be an improvement?

I'm saddened to find out the director/writer Chadi Abdel Salam made only one film in his life. But with "The Night of Counting the Years", he created an incredible synthesis of the mysterious power of the heritage of Ancient Egypt with the power of experimental cinema. It's a magnificent accomplishment.

A very un-sentimental view of serious moral struggle. The silent messages of the ancients seems to speak as eloquently as the poetically formal language of the tribal elders. Not for everyone, to be sure, but a tour-de-force of fusing visual imagery with a message of deep principles.

"Al-Mummia" is a tragedy of the collision if two cultures. The effendis of Cairo are loyal to the history of the 21st Dynasty. the tribe of people dwelling among ancient tombs are sustained by and called on to be loyal to the ways of their more immediate ancestors. The one group sees hierogylphs as inscrutable or meaningless, the other can apparently read them right off. The stateliness of the narrative style of the movie some might say is operatic, or rather, it has the solemnity of ancestral ways. In particular, the movie is a rare success in conveying the sacrality of artifacts of the particular religion of the pharaohs. The camera, for example, cautiously follows a "secret trail" into a tomb, watches a dark corner being turned before it turns itself, shows the desecration of prying the lid of a sarcophagus and touching the mummy inside. (I may be particularly vulnerable, taken on trips as a child to a museum where I was dared to see into a mummy by x-ray.)

One of the best movies in Arab history, and I classify it as the best Arab and Egyptian movie in history Shady Abdel Salam is creative, the cinematography is very beautiful, and the genius of the Egyptian cinematographer, which appeared from time immemorial, Egyptian cinema is missing such masterpieces , using the Arabic language, using the eloquent Arabic language, a wonderful choice, and an excellent choice, the movie every scene is creative from the first writing, casting, filming and directing.

There is no Egyptian or Arab movie that can surpass this movie, creativity and cinematic masterpieces.

I loved this film, and am trying to obtain a copy, either video or DVD. I had taped it off the TV many years ago, but unfortunately the video tape deteriorated beyond hope of repair, and I don't remember which channel I taped it from... Can anyone help me to get a copy?? I have recently been to Egypt and fell in love with the whole thing, am returning there next year, and would so need to revisit this movie. As a movie, it is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, and very well directed, using the amazing light of that country to best effect. The fact that it was produced by Roberto Rossellini is also quite an accolade! Please will some other Egyptophile, who knows anything about the whereabouts of this lovely film, please respond, and make me very happy?