Pharaoh

If an uninitiated person were to watch this epic historical film and skip the opening credits, they would inevitably get the impression that this is a big-budget Hollywood production. A mistake and at the same time a pleasant discovery that even in neighbouring Poland something so large can be created. It's been quite a few years since I saw it in the cinema and I still have a vivid memory of it. A great experience. (09/15/2002)

A spectacular adaptation of the famous Prus novel. Oscar nominations, Cannes... Young Ramses XIII is being groomed as a prince for the future years of his reign. His father is still alive, but he’s sick. Egypt is ruled by priests. This film told in a dazzling manner from the 11th century BC chronicles the formative years of the fictional successors of the 20th Dynasty. Just as Prus lays out a web of power plays with each successive chapter in his book, Kawalerowicz presents this even more effectively to the film audience. The play of colors, with its emphasis on gold as the desert sand or the golden treasure of the gods and blue as the endless cloudless sky in the landscape of the eternal Nile, is a chessboard for a sharp political game. Such as it was current at the end of the New Kingdom, in Prus's time, and in our present. This must have been something amazing to see on a movie screen. Personally, this is an achievement of my lifetime in not only finding a great story from ancient Egypt that hasn't been diluted by contact with Helen - and most importantly, after twenty years of being hypnotized by Prus's book, I have finally started reading it. Kawalerowicz removed all my fears. (01/02/2012)