Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Spoiler-free premise
A young man in nineteenth-century Egypt questions his tribe’s secret trade in ancient artifacts.
Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free+
In 1881, the Horabat tribe survives by secretly looting royal tombs near Thebes and selling antiquities. Young Wanis learns the hidden source of the family's wealth and must choose between tribal loyalty and preserving Egypt's ancestral history.
Why it belongs
Shadi Abdel Salam makes cultural inheritance monumental through sculptural bodies, desert architecture, measured speech, and royal objects emerging from darkness.
Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case+
Limestone cliffs, black robes, tomb passages, carved faces, boats, dawn light, and Mario Nascimbene's score give the ethical choice civilizational scale. Ahmed Marei's Wanis moves through frames like a figure awakening into history.
Major award wins
No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.
Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Good for
Film Club
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.
Institutional reference ranks
Sight & Sound—IMDb Top 250—AFI 100—
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score
Great Cinema Master List scores
Greatness9.0
Engagement7.9
Ease7.0
Arabic · Not Rated Narrative Feature Mood: Majestic & Meditative
