The Mummy (Al-Mummia), aka The Night of Counting the Years

This was the most successful full-length feature film by Shadi Abdel Salam, who started his career as an assistant to Rossellini and Mankiewicz (on Cleopatra) and died quite young. Set in Egypt at the end of the 19th century, it tells of a peasant family living off the illegal trade in pharaonic treasures. The theme here is the continuity between ancient and modern Egypt and the importance of preserving pharaonic culture. Abdel Salam, also a great costume and set designer, based everything on meticulous research. Its aesthetic rigour was never again rivalled in Egyptian cinema.