When government official in Egypt discover mummies being sold on the open market in Cairo, an investigation is launched. A tribe living in the mountains has passed down information for millennia about the hidden treasures in the Valley of the Kings. The tribal chieftain dies and his two sons are taken to a secret tomb containing entire family dynasties of mummies and artifacts. One son who feels the plunder is sacrilegious is murdered, leading his younger brother to pinpoint the location of the tomb for authorities. The tribe must find a different way of life after grave robbing for three thousand years. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
The Night of Counting the Years, a.k.a. The Mummy (Arabic:Al-Mummia المومياء) is a 1969Egyptian film directed by Shadi Abdel Salam. Egyptian critics consistently list it as one of the most important Egyptian films ever made.[1]
The film casts its story in terms of the search for an authentic, lost Egyptian national identity, represented by the neglected and misunderstood artifacts of ancient Egyptian civilisation. However, the conflict between city and countryside suggests questions that are not resolved in the film, making it an ambiguous, unsettling reflection on the price of identity.
Visual style
Its slow pace, unusual camera angles and striking colours give the film a dreamlike quality, reinforced by Mario Nascimbene's eerie music. Moreover, the dialogue is entirely in classical Arabic, a very unusual trait for an Egyptian film, which adds to the sense of unreality.
Colla, Elliott (2000-10-06). Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib: History, Culture, and Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. pp. 109–146 ("Shadi Abd al-Salam's al-Mumiya: Ambivalence and the Egyptian Nation-State"). ISBN978-0312222871.
