The years pass and Hamar, Khufu, his queen Nailla and Vashtar visibly age. The film brings us to the secret of treasure and how we preserve it. Lacking a big name cast, Land of the Pharaohs was unsuccessful at the box office, earning $450,000 short of its $3,150,000 production budget. A few minutes in we’re made to understand that we’ll be watching a not very famous actor playing a young man coming back to Egypt to sell his family’s old feudalist mansion, but to his and our surprise he finds a hidden stash of documents telling his ancestors’ epic stories. After being informed of the queen's death, Khufu begins investigations. The poster says Arafa wrote the story for The Treasure, and Abdel Rahim Kamal wrote the script and dialogue. Maar de laatste vijf jaar heeft Egypte een tumultueuze revolutie ondergaan en is het toerisme gekelderd. The actors mostly stand or sit amid cheesy cartoonish versions of architecture or clothing styles of the era they’re meant to be in. But it’s also an insult to Egypt, a film made by a group of so-called intellectuals who made a very shallow hole in their country’s history, picked out some exotic aesthetics and tales, and patched them together using a lot of cheap labor to create something people can have a relationship with no deeper than that people have with fake pharaonic papyrus or Islamic phrases on tacky pottery. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy the Buddies series of movies. Land of the Pharaohs was Howard Hawks's first commercial failure; it caused him to take a break from directing and to travel through Europe for several years. The characters’ struggles often — probably deliberately — make no sense or are impossible to relate to, like the dramatic compromise of Beshr’s brother, which doesn’t really feel like a compromise at all, or Hatshepsut’s forbidden love for a sweet-tongued mortal peasant, a subplot that generates a hilarious stream of flirtation lines that will supply meme weavers for a long time to come. The May 24 release Durgeshgorer Guptodhon represents the umpteenth effort by a group of Bengalis to seek lost treasure. This is your kingdom.". Hawks made his next film, Rio Bravo (1959), four years later; this was the longest break between two feature films in his career. This might be a reflection of Arafa’s personal beliefs, and those of Waheed Hamid and Adel Imam and many other Egyptians who do believe that a military regime’s hell is better than any alternative’s heaven, but judging the sincerity of these opinions seems to have no point now, especially in light of Arafa’s latest three-hour offering. "[8] Harrison's Reports wrote that the film "grips one's attention throughout," due to the "overwhelming grandeur and vast production values" and "fascinating story. "[5] Variety wrote, "While shy of proven draw value in cast names, the Howard Hawks production for Warners makes up for the lack of romance, adventure and intrigue played against a grandioso backdrop of actual story locales populated with teeming masses of thousands upon thousands of extras. The government supplied those extras, half of whom were soldiers in the Egyptian Army. … You have a right to access accurate information, be stimulated by innovative and nuanced reporting, and be moved by compelling storytelling. That's it-the statue talks! The film has drawn more interest over the years and has been defended by Martin Scorsese, French critics supporting the auteur theory, and for numerous elements of its physical production. A sequel to The Treasure (Part 1) - Reality & Fantasy (2017) The movie resumes with the stories of Hatsheput in the Pharaonic era, Ali al-Zaibaq during the Ottoman era and Beshr al-Katatini, head of State Security Investigations Service, who faces new challenges in work and love, whilst pointing his son, Hassan, towards a treasure through his recorded will. This time they team up with Cammy and Babi to foil a plot by a nefarious treasure hunter (Edward Herrman) to steal the Egyptian treasure of Cleocatra. You get it through the overall look of the picture: the low ceilings, the torchlit interiors, the shape of the pillars, the look of the extras. Overall, the dialogue is as pretentious as possible, with every sentence rhyming and metaphor-stuffed, in the hopes that this will give the film a classical epicness or give the audience the impression that they’re watching Game of Thrones. The map is from her brother-in-law who was recently murdered. It’s a exotic film that may appeal to the Saudi tourists who seem to be filling Egypt’s cinemas nowadays, which is fortunate because Egypt has a long and funny history but Egyptians don’t have money to go watch a film about it right now. Dissatisfied with his own architects' offerings, he enlists Vashtar, whose agreement he gains by offering to free Vashtar's people when the work is completed - although Vashtar will have to die to guard the pyramid’s secrets. When outlying territories are laid under tribute, Princess Nellifer comes as the ambassador from the poor province of Cyprus and offers herself to Pharaoh instead, eventually becoming his second wife. "'Land of Pharaohs' Colossus of Films". Martin Scorsese's Guilty Pleasures When Nellifer protests, Pharaoh harshly rebukes her in front of the court. Elsewhere, they built a ramp and foundation the size of the original pyramid, where thousands of extras were filmed pulling huge stone blocks. If you think the treasures of Ancient Egypt are just gold, gaudiness and pyramids, think again. Divine protection. "There's no way out," Hamar tells he; “this is what you lied and schemed and murdered to achieve. This is the way people lived; this is what they believed, thought, and felt. Directed by Sharif Arafah. It says much for Jack Hawkins' Pharaoh (a performance of integrity and surprising vigour) that it surmounts the occasional absurdities of dress and unlikely figures of speech, even if we remain unconvinced that he is a living god. Don't worry. The treasure in the second part (love and Fate) is complemented by the struggle of the characters in order to reach or protect the treasure, in addition to their love or life. In general, The Treasure seems to be a quite arbitrary and poorly executed attempt to sew together bits and pieces of what Arafa’s life experience has taught him about human feelings, art and what people enjoy watching on a big screen. When my children gave me a Kindle as a present, I started searching through Amazon's extensive collection of movies for the film. Additional characters appear suddenly to give heroes’ personal stories missing depth, like the late and unproductive appearance of Zeinab (played by Ruby, the beloved diva whose presence in the film seems to have been decided before the story was written). With Hind Sabri, Ahmed Amin, Mohamad Ramadan, Amina Khalil. Sherif Arafa is an Egyptian film director with an interesting career. Lost Treasures of Egypt is een meeslepende serie die internationale Egyptologen volgt bij opgravingen in het rijkste archeologische gebied ter wereld. You're never told, "This is how they did it: it was a joke, a trick." ... you’ve led an Egyptian-German team of researchers that has also made interesting discoveries in ancient Heliopolis. It is believed that more than 3,000 years ago, an important Egyptian official called Amennakhte took the time and drew, upon a papyrus, the feature… For Beshr, nothing important happens in the film’s first two thirds, until a female singer appears and he has feelings all of a sudden. Later Vashtar demonstrates to Khufu and Hamar how he will seal the entire pyramid with a solid stone in a matter of moments once Pharaoh's body and treasure are within. The events revolve around four eras, namely the Pharaonic and Abbasid era and the Kingdom era. What’s more, its script is badly written. Before the movie starts, a sentence on a black screen reads: “This movie is inspired by truth and myth without committing to any of them,” which is perhaps appropriate for the bullshit that ensues. The camera does nothing but chase the actors’ awkward movements between the never-ending, redundant chapters. One day on the construction site, Senta saves Khufu from a runaway stone block. Another storyline evolves too quickly: in every scene featuring Hatshepsut (Hend Sabry) a major change happens and politics gets increasingly complex, in a desperate attempt to make the set look like Ancient Egypt rather than a poor replica of Ancient Egypt in a Dubai mall. Before the arrival of Christianity, the Slavs had their own sets of … Humiliated, Nellifer conspires with Treneh to purchase a cobra to kill Queen Nailla while he is away at an oasis. I watch this movie over and over again.[14]. 6 accounts per household included. ), I couldn't find a copy of the movie as a DVD. The ancient chart, drawn on papyrusbelieved to be more than 3,000 years old is an incredible example of ancient Egyptian development. The Treasure assumes that our intelligence is incapable of processing the true complexity of a political game Arafa that knows very well and has been very close to the center of. The Axe Of Perun. After Khufu's death, Hamar releases Vashtar and Senta from their death sentences: once the tomb is sealed the secret will not matter. The Librarian Series. Ancient Egypt holds priceless treasures yet to be discovered. Seeing Nellifer's slave and now suspecting her, Khufu rushes back to the city, where Nellifer manipulates him into a sword fight with Treneh. Hamar, Lord High Priest of Egypt and boyhood friend to Pharaoh Khufu, chronicles his reign. "[1] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote that the technical aspects of the film "will provide moments of complete fascination," but thought that screenwriter "Faulkner, abetted by Harry Kurnitz and Harold Jack Bloom, has laid a Hollywooden egg. Although I previously owned a copy of the movie in VCR format (you do remember those don't you? [6], When the Pharaoh was inspecting, and rejecting, the Egyptian architects' models for his tomb, the third model he looks at is a model of the actual interior of the pyramid built for Khufu. Then they pan over to the other god-and now he talks. Then there is a major checkpoint in the middle, consisting of five collaborations (1992-1996) with megastar Adel Imam and prominent writer Waheed Hamid — a streak of well-crafted, politically engaged and commercially successful films that probably made the three legends who they are now. The Buddies can and do get into a lot of trouble, and make friends along the way. Due to long hours working by candlelight, Vashtar's eyesight is failing, so he shares the secret of the tomb and gets his son to help him. You don't see the mouth moving, you just hear the voice. Episode one is a gigantic collage of three stories happening in various eras of Egypt’s history, an epic that must seem like a dream come true to such a director. His work jumped from a bizarre experimental arty start, with films like Al-Aqzam Qadimoon (The Dwarfs are Coming, 1986) and Samaa Hoss (Listen Up, 1991) to shallow over-budgeted action blockbusters like Mafia (2002) and Al-Gezira (The Island, 2007). At these sites, 9,787 actors were filmed for one scene. After many years of meaningless and boring films, this Eid, Arafa introduced the audience to the first of his Al-Kenz (The Treasure) trilogy. Arafa has always had an interest in cinema’s entertaining and fantastical side, and almost all his movies have shown huge ambition and a strong will to push the boundaries of what Egypt’s film industry can provide. The excessive use of colorful clothes and sets fail to enliven the flat compositions and cinematography. One of the three historical parallel stories evolves too slowly, that of 1940s police officer Beshr (star comedian Mohamed Saad in his first non-comedic role, a performance that has been acclaimed just for not being too funny). While Khufu is showing Nellifer his enormous hoard, she is allowed into an inner vault where the Pharaoh is saving the finest of the treasure for his "second life." "[9] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The attraction of such epics as Land of the Pharaohs lies almost entirely in their incidental detail, since whatever the period in time, the situation is predictable and the players are doomed to remain within the limitations of Hollywood's historical imagination. Land of the Pharaohs had a cast of thousands – Warner Bros. press office claimed there were 9,787 extras in one scene[5] – and was one of Hollywood's largest-scale, ancient world epics, made in the same spirit as The Robe, The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur. Saad has to make a noticeable effort to not make us think of all the obnoxious characters he has played in commercial comedies, because Beshr’s character surpasses them in shallowness. Scorsese, Martin. With Mohamad Ramadan, Muhammad Sad, Hind Sabri, Amina Khalil. Movie Theaters in Egypt Showing 1 - 30 of 36 open movie theaters All Theaters (95) Open (36) Showing Movies (35) Closed (59) Demolished (5) Restoring (0) Renovating (0) Ancient Egyptian treasures uncovered in tomb near Valley of the Kings This article is more than 3 years old Mummies, jewels and sarcophagi are among the 3,500-year-old treasures … All three parallel stories also include some recurrent battle with a form of authority-related injustice: a high-ranking merciless police tyrant in 1940s Egypt with a funny mustache, a ferocious pharaonic queen with blind ambition and a silly wig, and a random evil man in synthetic medieval clothes who wants to do bad stuff all the time. , 1955 ) film 'Land of the building of the Pharoahs ' is Standard Saga '' although I owned! Searching through the treasure egyptian movie 's extensive collection of movies for the film 's three screenwriters sister Elaine is kidnapped in and! 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