However, he decided to abandon this first draft and start over, this time based on his own emotions and ideas. It was the application of theories he had been studying for years. In 1965, Abdel Salam completed the first version of the script for The Mummy, titled And They Were Buried a Second Time. This raised the question of Ancient Egypt’s immortality and gave concrete expression to the idea that the preservation of names and bodies was a national safeguard rather than a material one. He was impressed by the mummies’ defiance of time and their journey from one tomb to another, eventually ending up in the Egyptian Museum. It had remained in his memory until the day when, thanks to his job as artistic adviser for the film Pharaoh by the Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz in 1963, this project was born. The filmmaker had first read the story about the hiding place of the royal mummies of Deir al-Bahari in 1956, after his graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts. All were moved by the film’s sober technique and by its theme, which was deeply touching for Egyptians: a sacred theme presented in a new form – the language of film – and accompanied by the sincerity that’s in harmony with this people. In the dark, Shadi Abdel Salam waited for the reaction of his family and friends to this new work of art.

On 16 December 1969, The Mummy was shown for the first time to the audience of the Cairo Film Club, which included many intellectuals.

Egyptian language in the mummy movie