Egyptomania

Hollywood jokes around with Eastern history, producing a lot of under researched, incompetent trash for fan servicing. With Queen Cleopatra, this is disastrous. The issue is not about whitewashing claims since these claims are as uninformed as the fanfic producers. Still, casting choices for such a complex character often seem ambiguous, especially with the latest news about Gal Gadot starring as Cleopatra in the upcoming "biopic". Gadot's portrayal of Wonder Woman, a character not as remotely as complex as Cleopatra, was only satisfactory, if not below. It is really no different than her animated Injustice video game counterparts. Cleopatra has Greek origins and the Ptolemais never appreciated the concept of mixing races with the Egyptians. Casting a white actress here won't threaten coherence, but casting an insufficiently talented one definitely will. Cleopatra VII is unarguably the most popular ruling Queen in Egyptian history ending the whole Ptolemaic dynasty wi...

  Al-Mummia (The Mummy) or the Night of Counting the Years is the only long feature film directed by the exquisite Shady Abd El Salam. It was produced in 1969 with a plot set in 1881, one significant year before the Anglo-Egyptian war. The photography is done by Abd El Aziz Fahmy and the music score is by  Mario Nascimbene. This movie was selected to be the Egyptian entry for the Academy Awards foreign film nominations, but was sadly overlooked. The movie may be critically acclaimed in Egyptian Cinema but it did not connect with a lot of audience, even in Egypt. This is NOT going to be one of those spoiler-free reviews. Watch the movie right now if you haven't. You have been warned. The simple detailed plot  The movie starts with the Cairene archaeologists discussing the surfacing of some antiquities (specifically a Book of the Dead papyrus) belonging to the never discovered tombs of the 21st dynasty on the black market. This has led the archaeologists to believe that so...