You who go, you will return.
You who sleep, you will rise.
You who walk, you will be resurrected.
For glory is due to you,
to the heavens and their loftiness,
to the earth and its breadth,
to the seas and their depth.
The Night of Counting the Years
The Mummy
Based on the story of the discovery of the cache of mummies in Dayr Al-Bahri in 1881
"May you be obeyed, Lord of Light,
you who live in the heart of the great house.
Prince of night and darkness,
I have come to you as a pure soul.
Grant me a mouth that I may speak in your presence.
Bring me my heart quickly
on the day when the clouds become heavy
and the darkness thickens."
"Give me my name in the great house,
and return my name
to memory, on the day when the years are counted."
A distant echo
that comes to us from distant Thebes,
separated from our day by
three thousand years.
You may have recognised it as a chapter of the Book of the Dead.
The repetition of this papyrus
restores the dead person's ability
to remember his or her name.
Any soul that lacks a name
wanders in endless toil.
For losing one's name means losing one's identity.
But I haven't called you to this meeting
so we can discuss the Book of the Dead,
which all of you know very well.
My predecessor, the late Mariette Pasha, gave it to me:
a funeral papyrus for Pennedjem I
from the 11th Dynasty.
This is a picture of a funeral papyrus
that was smuggled out of Egypt
about five years ago.
Unfortunately, our Egyptian Museum has only
this picture.
It clearly shows the name of Queen Nedjmet.
This papyrus was sold
by an unknown merchant in Thebes.
From all this,
we can deduce that someone
knows the exact location of these unknown tombs
from the 21st Dynasty,
and that this person has known this secret
for a long time.
But there is no trace of the tombs of that dynasty
in Thebes, Mr. Maspero.
True. And excavations in this case
would be a waste of time and money.
Someone in Thebes
knows where those tombs are.
Otherwise, how did all these things get out
to the world's antiquities markets?
Our top priority in the next season
will be the matter of these unknown tombs.
Ahmad Kamal,
Do you have any other business before we end this last meeting of the season?
Yes. I want to be in Thebes this summer
to work on just this matter.
Everyone there knows that the antiquities authorities
don't work in the summer.
Therefore, it's the season in which antiquities thieves are safe
and try to smuggle out their goods.
My unexpected arrival
will throw them into confusion,
and their confusion
will surely lead me to some evidence.
I'm pleased with your suggestion.
These documents will be useful to you.
I'm confident that you'll act
patiently and wisely.
I'll leave right away, then.
In Thebes, you'll find a small force of mountain guards
who guard the Mountain of the Dead.
They'll help you to the best of their ability.
I wish you success.
May God have mercy on his soul.
He prepared you for this day
so you could honour his name and protect his tribe.
So you could honour his name and protect his tribe!
The tribe of the Hurabat.
Here, before my brother's grave
I reveal to you the secret of what is ours
and what will remain ours
as long as this mountain lasts.
A secret for you to protect with your blood, with your lives.
The secret of a hidden treasure whose protection
has been passed from father to son.
Why are we taking this path?
It's a path for goats.
Because it's safer.
Safer for jackals!
Save your courage for the city people and the guards.
They're spreading over the mountain like plague.
Climb up. The path is safe.
Follow me.
What's the matter, Wanis?
Nothing. But it's humiliating to hide.
Hurry.
Follow me.
Be careful, and don't ask questions.
Here, you're nothing but grains of sand in the mountain's belly.
Is Wanis staying here until we return?
I came here to fulfil my father's wish.
He'll come with us, to know everything I'll know.
That's how men should talk.
Truly, both of you take after your father.
Take this to the merchant Ayyub.
What is this secret?
You've made me afraid to look at you, father.
What is my destiny now?
What is this secret?
It's a sin to know it,
and a graver sin not to know it.
Sin? What sin, cousin?
I don't understand this talk.
I don't understand your calm.
For years I've been bringing things to the merchant Ayyub.
You told me they had been found on the mountain.
You taught me not to ask questions, and I believed you.
Was this our way of life?
It was and will remain our way of life.
Don't you see what you're doing?
Isn't there anyone whose conscience worries him and makes him speak up?
Now you know the secret of the hidden treasure.
Your father's share now belongs to you and your brother.
Is sharing it with your brother what bothers you?
Sharing the dead?
Those whom you call the dead
are only dust or wood from thousands of years ago.
Nobody knows of their parents or children.
Kind mistress of the house,
our condolences.
We have come to your house,
to the house of my late brother
to console you and to share in your sorrow,
and to offer you whatever you ask.
Your very presence consoles me and honours the house.
May God give you the strength to bear your sorrow.
What's boiling inside you, cousin?
What? Why didn't you deliver this to the merchant Ayyub?
The whole tribe is waiting for the money from its sale!
— If your father was alive... — Leave the dead in peace!
You mean leave them to the city people?!
What trade do we have with them?
Those arrogant Cairenes
would lock you up if they found this on you.
They pillage everything.
And unlike Ayyub, they don't pay us.
To you it's a piece of gold,
But I see it as an eye that pursues me.
A dead eye, containing enough gold to feed a hundred mouths.
A hundred mouths that would eat your flesh if they were hungry.
What about you?! Where has your food been coming from all your life?!
I never thought I would hear Salim's son talk like the city people.
I want you to know
That entering and leaving the cave
has made you into another person,
different to the people of the valley,
and to the city people who wish they knew the secret.
I also want you to know
that the secret of the hidden treasure
is worth more than the life of any individual in Salim's tribe.
My brother prepared you for this day,
but I see you standing before me trembling like a child.
Our life is a hard struggle!
But it seems that you're weak or incapable.
What you call our life
feels like a poison in my body.
This is the life of jackals!
Carry these sins by yourselves.
This was your father's life,
and his father's life before him.
He wanted you to learn the secret of the hidden treasure.
If he was alive now, he would want you dead.
I'm not afraid of your talk.
You should fear your children when they ask you someday,
"Is this our life?"
We will raise them to respect their parents' traditions.
That's enough.
I'm the one who raised my children.
I raised them to be as proud and haughty as the mountain.
We don't accept insults in my brother's house.
It's still his house.
I hope so.
It's only his walls.
The walls and the people that the walls protect.
Give me that piece.
Not just anyone should touch such things.
We'll go now.
If you'll excuse us, mistress of the house.
May God give you the strength to bear your fate.
Where is Wanis?
You defended me only when they talked about my upbringing.
True.
They crossed the boundaries of respect for this house.
Go and look for your brother.
— Have you seen him since...? — Yes.
Did you talk to him?
Yes.
You talked to him.
What does the future have in store for us?
My mind is troubled and can't keep silent.
Answer me. Count with me.
How many corpses did my father's hands defile?
Enough! What do you want?
I want the truth. Now.
You'll know it someday.
Or maybe you'll never know it.
As for the truth that I know,
it's that you have sullied your father's name in his house.
No. Nobody will harm him in his home.
Not even his son.
He was my companion in life.
The truth?
A curse on your truth.
And a curse on you.
Because you have disturbed he who rests in his grave.
Now he will never have any peace.
A curse on you.
You keep us from seeing clearly.
Get out of my sight, you wretch!
I don't know your name.
Wanis.
Wanis, why are you always evasive?
Why did you do all that to her?
She only lives in the past.
Wanis.
You showed me a dark destiny.
A desert that I have to cross alone,
afraid of feelings and memories.
What memory? Remembering weakens the will.
What will? The will to forget what was truth for me yesterday?
Let's go start over somewhere else.
There's nothing for us here anymore.
Why did you let me in on this? And why you, my brother?
Listen.
I don't want to listen.
I've heard enough already.
Why have they come before the appointed time?
We must look for Wanis. He's the only one who knows the secret.
No.
Let his tears rid him of his childhood.
He'll be back
driven by hunger and loneliness.
Watch Wanis from a distance like a shadow.
And make sure he isn't harmed.
Look for... what's-his-name, Ayyub's assistant, the pale-faced one.
— Murad. — Yes.
The mountain guards still don't know his face.
Go and look for Murad.
Murad! Murad!
I've repented. I have nothing to do with that.
Am I stupid enough to keep working in Ayyub's business now?
Listen to the steamship's whistle.
The city people have come back sooner than expected.
And Mr. Badawi and the guards will block all the roads.
No, sirs, tell your uncle:
Life in this place calls for a different sort of man now, someone extraordinary.
— You're a coward. — Yes, sir, I'm a coward.
— So why don't you leave? — And why should I leave?
Look, Miss Zayna has come to open a small shop near the port,
to cater to the city people.
My cousin and I will help her.
A loyal young woman.
When did they arrive? You didn't tell us about them before.
Since when do you ask after poor Murad?
You all ask after Ayyub. Ayyub this, Ayyub that, where is Ayyub?
In Cairo, in Suez, wherever he wants.
When he returns, we all run to serve him.
Wait, cousins.
They're very keen to see the city people from Cairo.
Excuse me. I shouldn't leave them unattended.
More city people from Cairo.
A whole floating town full of them.
The rich strangers.
They're truly rich.
Difficult days are ahead.
And your father, may God have mercy on his soul, left you to bear a weighty secret.
— May he rest in peace. — What do you want now, Murad?
May God protect you. I want only your health.
They're truly powerful and brilliant.
What about work? How will it be now?
A person has a right to know how and with whom he will be dealing.
Is that a message from Ayyub?
Ayyub? Who is Ayyub?
Your boss.
My boss is gold and its glitter, boss. Look.
Murad!
My cousin is very keen to see the city people from Cairo.
Forgive me, sir.
I'll circle around and investigate to find out why they've come back,
and I'll let you know later.
Do me the honour of a visit, sir.
I'm at your service.
— There's a strange look in his eye. — Yes.
As if he was a statue that came back to life.
They have no faces.
True.
But there's a face as big as a man.
Are you a stranger to the mountain?
Yes.
Aren't there things like this in your valley?
No.
Don't they frighten you sometimes?
They were my childhood companions.
My brother and I used to hide among them.
This palm is closed around its destiny, which will never be read.
What destiny can be read in a palm of stone?
The destiny of those who built these palaces, these images.
Men who walk towards nothing.
Ships that sail towards nothing.
Pillars that hold up no roof.