The Night of Counting the Years (also known as Al-Mummia)
1969moviePor qué verla
Commonly ranked among the finest achievements in Arab cinema, this sole feature from director Shadi Abdel Salam treats history not as grand adventure, but as a haunting moral inheritance134. Grounded in true events from 1881, the plot follows a young man from an Upper Egyptian clan who discovers that his family has survived for generations by secretly raiding pharaonic burial chambers and selling the artifacts134. Instead of an archeological thriller, the film unfolds as a solemn, deeply artistic inquiry into identity, cultural memory, and the burden of excavating the sacred past to survive the present134.
Dónde verla
Because it is a vintage world cinema classic, The Night of Counting the Years is rarely hosted on mainstream commercial subscription platforms like Netflix or Prime Video. However, thanks to a major restoration spearheaded by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna, the movie can frequently be watched freely through non-profit archives and educational platforms worldwide45. YouTube and Internet Archive: Full, high-definition restorations with English subtitles are hosted publicly and freely in most countries16. Film Foundation Screening Room and Specialty Curators: It rotates through special presentations hosted by The Film Foundation and occasionally airs on boutique arthouse services such as The Criterion Channel46.
Qué esperar
Tone: Austere, poetic, and somber34. The film treats ancient burial grounds with reverence and unease rather than action tropes, bolstered by an unsettling, modernist score by Mario Nascimbene13. Pacing: Unhurried, formal, and hypnotic13. Compositions are staged with theatrical stillness and geometric balance, allowing long stretches of silence and slow, ritualistic movements to build tension34. Content Notes: Very mild. There are depictions of tomb raiding, desecration of skeletal remains and mummies, and themes of familial betrayal and mortality, but no graphic violence or explicit content4. Note that the dialogue is performed entirely in Classical Arabic, enhancing its fable-like atmosphere13.
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