Regarded as one of the finest Arabic films ever made, this tale of two worlds colliding in the Egyptian desert is a visual and aural tour de force.

In late 19th-century Egypt, an isolated mountain tribe secretly traffics in looted antiquities. When their chieftain dies, his son must decide whether to continue this trade, upon which his community’s livelihood depends, or allow archaeologists to seize their cultural heritage – a dilemma that may carry violent consequences.

The first and only narrative feature film by filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam, The Night of Counting the Years (aka The Mummy) is a landmark in the history of Egyptian cinema, its bold camerawork and atonal soundtrack lending an eerie atmosphere to the film’s tale of the age-old struggle between tradition and modernisation.

"An astonishing piece of cinema … stately, poetic, with a powerful grasp of time and the sadness it carries." – Martin Scorsese

Restored in 2009 by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna /L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Egyptian Film Center. Restoration funding provided by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, Qatar Museum Authority and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.