The Night of Counting the Years

Infobox Film
name = The Night of Counting the Years
Al-Mummia


image_size =
caption = A screenshot from the film.
director = Chadi Abdel Salam
producer = Roberto Rossellini
writer = Chadi Abdel Salam
narrator =
starring = Ahmed Marei
Ahmad Hegazi
Zouzou Hamdy El-Hakim
Nadia Lutfi
music = Mario Nascimbene
cinematography = Abdel Aziz Fahmy
editing = Kamal Abou-El-Ella
distributor = General Egyptian Cinema Organisation
Merchant Ivory Productions
released = 1969
runtime = 102 min
country = flag|Egypt|UAR
language = Classical Arabic
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:159509
imdb_id = 0064703

"The Night of Counting the Years", a.k.a. "The Mummy" (Arabic: "Al-Mummia" المومياء) is a 1969 Egyptian film directed by Chadi Abdel Salam. Egyptian critics consistently list it as one of the most important Egyptian films ever made. [cite journal | last = Farid | first = Samir | title = The top 100 | journal = Al-Ahram Weekly | issue = 836 | publisher = Al-Ahram | location = Boulaq | date = 15-21 March 2007 | url = http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/836/cu4.htm | oclc = 179957756 | accessdate = 2008-05-08]

Plot

Set in 1881, on the eve 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 discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling 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.

ymbolism

The film casts its story in terms of the search for an authentic, lost Egyptian national identity, represented by the neglected and misunderstood artefacts 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.

ee also

*Grave robbing

Bibliography

*cite book
last = Colla
first = Elliott
title = "Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib: History, Culture, and Politics"
publisher = Palgrave Macmillan
date = 2000-10-06
location = New York
pages = pp. 109-146 ("Shadi Abd al-Salam's "al-Mumiya": Ambivalence and the Egyptian Nation-State")
isbn = 978-0312222871

References

External links

*imdb title|0064703
* [http://www.archive.org/details/The_Night_of_Counting_the_Years Free subtitled version of "The Night of Counting the Years"] at the Internet Archive
* [http://www.archive.org/details/The_Night_of_Counting_the_Years_DVD Non-subtitled DVD version of "The Night of Counting the Years"] at the Internet Archive