The Night of Counting the Years

Upper Egypt, 1881. A clan lives off a hidden tomb: mummies concealed in a cache near the village of Kurna, and the objects taken from them sold on the black market. Wannis, a young member of the clan, learns the secret after his father's death and has to decide between his family's livelihood and the integrity of the past. Shadi Abdel Salam turns this into a question of national identity. Who owns these mummies, in whose name is anyone speaking, whose past is it. The film argues this not by agitation but at something close to ceremonial pace: long takes, dialogue in classical Arabic, the silence of the desert. Roberto Rossellini was among its producers. It is widely counted among the greatest works of Egyptian cinema, and a large critics' poll named it the finest Arab film ever made. In 2009 the World Cinema Project of Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation restored it from the original negatives with Cineteca di Bologna. Who it's for: Viewers interested in slow cinema, questions of historical identity, and the classics of Arab cinema. Who it's not for: The pace is very heavy and the dialogue is not in everyday speech, a choice that adds distance. There is also almost no plot.