La momie

This is certainly a very unique and mystical film. The director was extremely meticulous, and paid great attention to details. The result is a great movie, that one would enjoy watching over and over again. It might be a bit slow for a few spectators, but that is not what everybody thinks.

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?

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.

"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.)

Having been in Egypt for more than 10 months, still I have been oblivious to any Egyptian film, which doesn't seem to be right, on its IMDb page it writes "Universally recognised as one of the greatest Egyptian films ever made", so what would be more promising to start with this one as my introduction piece to Egyptian cinema.

The film is based upon the true story of the discovery of 40 Royal Mummies in 1881 in Thebes, the capital of the Pharaonic Empire, notably produced by Roberto Rossellini. As director Chadi Abdel Salam's only feature length output, evening before seeing it, one finds it is a national treasure inspires reverence.

The plot-line is quite lucid, Wannis (Marei) is the son of the recently deceased chief of the ancient Horbat clan, after his uncles reveal the family secret to him and his brother - the clan is involved into the black market business of a cache of mummies which is discovered nearby to sustain the livelihood of the entire clan. After his brother being murdered for not condoning this act, it is a morally and religiously challenging task for Wannis to do what he thinks is right.

The middle east's exotic allure is predictably presented, but with a primitive and impassive approach, which is characterized with slow-paced camera movement unwaveringly taking up the film from A to Z (except some rapid editing to the violent scenes), so is the performance, as handsome as he is, Marei exclusively maintains the same facial expression of sacred fortitude throughout the entire movie, with a small dose of anger if the script requires, recites his lines without detectable emotional upheaval. The only actor who is worthy his line-of-work is Murad (Nabih), the broker between the clan and the antiquity buyer Ayoub (Noureddin), but in a land where film as an art form, has never fully burgeoned, one should have mercy to the team behind.

This is how unique the films is, a self-aware seriousness to the subject matter overhangs, it is like a laconic essay either tricks audience into its enigmatic maze of a distant realm (with bizarrely-shaped tombs and buried sarcophagi among yellow desert and angular knolls) only lives in one's imagination, or it bores you instantly with its mechanic graveness, it destines to be divisive.

The DVD version of the film is shoddy at the most, which may be a chief reason for my underwhelmed appreciation, but if cultural intrigue is really your cup of tea, it is not a wide eye-opener per se, but for better or worse, it is a different viewing experience, only if there is a better version of it in circulation.