“He's a peasant. Without looking into his situation, words are all he has.”شكاوى الفلاح الفصيح [El-Fallâh el-fasîh / The Eloquent Peasant] (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1970)
Dec
23
National Farmers Day – India
The peasant (Ahmed Marei) in a stone temple, flanked by scribes. DP: Mustafa Imam.
Farmers for Kisan Divas [National Farmers Day], India.
4000 years ago, Egypt, Middle Kingdom. A peasant, leading his mules past a stream of water, is tricked. With his animals gone, he pleads to the Pharaoh to restore Maʽat, harmony.
Chadi Abdel Salam is not only this film's director, but also a trained architect, later set and costume designer. His eye wordlessly speaks the passing of time in the smallest of details. The withering of ferns, desert sand staining linen, the Sun merging with skin. At once, the universal presence of the gods becomes visible.
egypt
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“You who go, you will return
You who sleep, you will rise
You who walk, you will be resurrected”
المومياء [Al-mummia / The Night of Counting the Years / The Mummy] (Chadi Abdel Salam, 1969)
Jan
11
Heritage Treasures Day
Men carrying the sarcophagi through the desert in a long, winding procession. Both the porters and the dead are dressed in white cloth. DP: Abdel Aziz Fahmy.