Egypt / 1969 / 102mins / Drama / Arabic

After their father is killed for a valuable piece of ancient jewelry, Wannis (Ahmed Marei), a young Egyptian man, and his brother (Ahmad Hegazi) are made privy to an important secret — the nearby mountain holds ancient tombs. Wannis wonders whether his family should attempt to profit from this knowledge, or if they should help keep the sarcophagi a secret for the sake of historical preservation. His decision becomes crucial when an antiquities group arrives, seeking to protect the tombs

Chadi Abdel Salam

Shadi Abdel Salam was an Egyptian film director, screenwriter and costume and set designer. Born in Alexandria on 15 March 1930, Shadi graduated from Victoria College, Alexandria, 1948, and then moved to England to study theater arts from 1949 to 1950. He then joined faculty of fine arts in Cairo where he graduated as an architect in 1955. He worked as assistant to the artistic architect, Ramsis W. Wassef, 1957, and designed the decorations and costumes of some of the most famous historical Egyptian films among which are; Wa Islamah, Al Nasser Salah Ad-Din, Almaz wa Abdu El Hamouly. He worked as a historical consultant and supervisor of the decoration, costumes and accessories sections of the Polish film, Pharaoh, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz. He also directed the long drama film entitled The Night of Counting the Years (Al-Momiaa), 1968–1969, and he received many awards for this work. He also directed the Ancient Egyptian short drama film entitled The Eloquent Peasant. Notably, he once worked as the Director of the Ministry of Culture Center for experimental films in 1970. He taught at the Cinema Higher Institute of Egypt in the Departments of Decorations, Costumes and Film Direction from 1963–1969. His dream project, Akhenaton was never accomplished, in spite of twelve (1974–1985) years of intensive preparation and research, due to lack of Egyptian financing for this ambitious and expensive project. Abdel Salam designed the drawings of the film, and diligently supervised all the designs that were carried out in his atelier by Salah Marei and Onsi Abu Seif, his students who later became his colleagues. Although Abdel Salam received a number of offers from foreigners who were more than willing to produce his outstanding project, he insisted on Egyptian funding as he firmly believed that the film had to be fully Egyptian. He passed away in October 1986. Learn More