[Stephanie█s voice] Travelers have been beguiled by ancient Egypt's charms since time immemorial.

The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote about his Egyptian travels in the 400s BCE.

Centuries later, Napoleon sparked Egyptomania in his 1798 campaign; a fascination in Europe, which was further emphasized by the rediscovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799.

In 1869, Thomas Cook led his first guided tour of ancient Egyptian sites.

And in 1937, Agatha Christie captured the imaginations of readers worldwide with her murder mystery novel Death On The Nile.

I, too, have been captivated by Egypt's millenias-long heritage of mythmaking.

I want to delve into this world of ancient Egypt and discover what it might inform me about storytelling.

♪ “Steadee█s Groove” ♪ Hi, I'm Stephanie.

I'm a 33-year-old American filmmaker, and a complete cinema nerd.

I love the oldies, the goodies.

The New Waves or Golden Age, you name it, I'm in.

On my 33rd birthday, I decided to travel the world to meet and document other filmmakers my age.

Travel with me to over 33 countries to meet the storytellers who are dynamically challenging the status quo of the world today.

Together, we will watch their films, hear their stories, engage with their cultures, and perhaps, learn a little bit about life, love, cinema, history, and me!

[in Arabic] [Stephanie█s voice] My favorite Egyptian legend is that of Osiris and Isis, a married brother sister pair.

The children of the gods of Earth and Sky.

Osiris was sent to Earth to help civilize Egypt.

His brother Seth was jealous and sought to wreak havoc.

While Osiris was away, Seth plotted to kill him.

He tricked Osiris into entering a wooden chest, which Seth then chopped into multiple pieces, spreading Osiris█ body all over Egypt.

Isis traveled across the land to collect the pieces of her beloved.

She turned herself into a hawk and breathed life back into Osiris.

They then conceived a son, Horus, the falcon god.

Osiris lived on to become the god of the underworld, while Horus sought revenge against his evil uncle Seth.

Throughout my time in Egypt, I returned over and over to this story, the ultimate parable of good versus evil.

I drew parallels to our modern world: battling a global pandemic.

The continued rise of authoritarianism across the world, campaigns of misinformation infiltrating our mindsets.

But also the power of love, determination, survival, and the desire for good to outrule evil.

Egypt, “the mother of the world,” as it is lovingly called, has a population of over 100 million and a recorded history dating back over 7000 years.

In ancient times, its civilizations thrived thanks to the agriculturally fertile Nile River, And the river still holds an important place in Egyptian society today.

Historically, Egypt is split into Upper and Lower.

Upper Egypt, represented by the Lotus flower, consists of the southern kingdoms of the Aswan and Nubia, Lower Egypt, the papyrus, is that of the northern and delta regions, where Cairo and Alexandria lie.

There's so much for a traveler to explore: from snorkeling in the Red Sea, to cruising the Nile in a traditional dahabiya like the Pharaohs once did.

To temple hopping, and camel trekking, visiting the desert oases and channeling “Lawrence of Arabia.” There█s a lot to unpack as we explore the culture and society of both ancient and modern day Egypt, especially now that we're more than a decade past the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.

Have ordinary Egyptians benefited from this so-called democratization?

And what are their hopes and dreams for the future?

[Mina] You know, it's kind of funny.

Like this stereo-typical point of view about Egypt.

Like pyramids and the camels.

When I tell somebody I'm an Egyptian.

So they think about, like, the I don't know what they studied back in the school or something.

but yeah, King Tut, you [Stephanie] King Tut?

[Mina] Yeah, King Tut.

[Both laugh.]

And...

I don't have gold, but... Of course, like we live in cities.

We are not in the desert.

But this is not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about, we as human beings.

If my films can be like some sort of a bridge that people can relate to the Egyptians and to the society here, that would be like the best thing.

[Stephanie█s voice] Mina Nabil was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt.

[Stephanie voice] Mina Nabil was born and raised in Alexandri His name implies greatness.

“Mina” derives from Egypt's first Pharaoh-God, Menes.

In the Coptic language, it signifies “a person who is steadfast, committed, unrelenting, and determined.” All traits you want in your king, and certainly traits that make up a good filmmaker.

You know, like, sometimes when you're young and you go to the cinema even using the word ‘█magic,██ and you feel like you don't want to go out.

So that's what drove me to the set, you know, like, I just wanted to be in film all the time.

[Stephanie] Mina is a director, cinematographer and producer who received a bachelor's in Cinema Production in Cairo.

He has chosen to stay rooted in his home city to pursue filmmaking, and is a co-founder of Alexandria based Fig Leaf Studios.

People think if you're from Egypt or North Africa, you want to travel to America or like to Europe.

But yeah, we do want to see the world.

But at the same time, I feel like I want to tell stories.

Mina is a very sought after cinematographer in Egypt, mostly on high end commercials for the likes of Google, Facebook and UN-AIDS.

[Stephanie] Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt, is the stuff of legends.

With a population of over 5 million, Alexandria is a crucial port town situated on the Mediterranean Sea.

Named for its founder, Alexander the Great.

Alexander trekked across the desert to Siwa Oasis to visit the Oracle of Amun, who decreed Alexander had divine rights to the throne of Egypt.

I to trekked to Siwa to talk to the Oracle.

He wasn't in.

Good ole Alex did not stay much longer in Egypt, as he left for Mesopotamia, and died less than two years after Alexandria's founding.

Despite this, Alexandria became the cultural and scientific center of the Greek world, famed for its lighthouse and its library, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which was infamously destroyed in a fire during the Roman period.

Scholars and philosophers such as Euclid, Archimedes, Plotinus, Ptolemy and Aristophanes all studied in Alexandria.

And locals are still proud of this tie to ancient history.

[Mina] Being a filmmaker in Alexandria, for me, is a privilege, because, first, the weather is good, and the city is nice, and... And you feel like, I know it█s kind of cheesy to say, but, all the time in our films you're going to see like the Corniche or the sea shot in our films.

But this is what we like.

If you feel, or if you if you see, like the old Egyptian films, you're going to see how there's some scenes that related to Alexandria, because it's Mediterranean, it can relate to different lifestyles.

It's a little bit slower than Cairo.

[Stephanie█s voice] Mina is continuing a long legacy of cinematic greatness to emerge from Alexandria.

Early Lumiere films were shown in 1896 at the Alexandria Stock Exchange of Toussoun Pasha, and the first footage shot by an Egyptian was filmed in Alexandria at the mosque of Abu-Al Abass Al-Mursi in 1907.

Egypt█s most internationally recognized filmmaker also hails from Alexandria: Youssef Chahine.

Born in Alexandria in 1926, Chahine█s film career spanned six decades and over 40 feature films.

What I love about Chahine█s films is that he shows you slices of society.

Watching Chahine█s repertoire is like taking a tour of Egypt through different landscapes from both Upper and Lower Egypt, to different time periods.

As Egypt grew, so too did Chahine, as a filmmaker and storyteller, both proud of and critical of his heritage.

If you watch a city through, or a country, from a director's point of view through his films, that's quite interesting.

And of course, I feel like my films like, let's say I shot in Alexandria, I shot in the Delta region.

I shot in Luxor, I shot in Aswan.

And when I go back again, I feel like, oh, there's changing.

Streets are changing, people are changing.

Cars are changing.

You know, like, so you feel the change.

But I feel like, the human stories are not changing.

This is the only... the conflict is the same.

Somehow.

I can speak about something and you can find it in the ‘20s even, you know, like the same story.

[Stephanie] And 5000 years ago, apparently, if you interpret the carvings on the wall, it's insane how simple it can be, actually, you know.

[film clip in Arabic] The 1930s to ‘60s was Egypt's Golden Age of cinema, when Egypt was the Hollywood of the Orient.

The films produced by Studio Misr rivaled the cinema of Europe and America.

Once sound was introduced, music and cinema formed a perfect marriage, and Egypt became the largest exporter of film and musical content to the Arab world.

The “White Rose” became the first Egyptian musical starring legendary singer Abdel Wahab.

The popularity of the music helped “The White Rose” become an instant hit, and was shown around the world.

During World War Two, Hollywood productions slumped, so Egyptian cinema filled the gap by producing films that mimic European and American styles.

Cinemas were set up in what you could call a “pyramid structure, divided into three classes of society.

There were first class cinemas for the wealthy and refined.

Second for the middle classes, and third class, which became known as Cinema Terso.

[film clip in Arabic] [Film clip] Ding ding ding ding.

[Film clip] My name is Sylvette Baudrot.

I am a script girl since 1950.

[Stephanie█s voice] When I met Mina, he was focused on his passion piece: a feature documentary, “I Am A Script Girl,” about the life and career of Sylvette Baudrot, who worked in the film industry for 70 years as a script supervisor on many many films.

Her career started with Laurel and Hardy, She worked for Alfred Hitchcock.

And for many years with Roman Polanski.

These are big names in the world of cinema!

For me, it was like an ongoing, like lecture, you know, because first of all, I went there, I stayed in a hostel at that time, and after that she told me I can move with her and stay with her.

And it completely changed everything, because if you're staying, if you're staying with the protagonist, it's really like making things, more livable.

Like, if I'm telling you, I'm going to interview tomorrow at 2 p.m., you're going to be ready.

So I was glad not to have her ready all the time.

And she was like, opening up to me and showing me all the scripts.

[Stephanie] So do you think you as a director have the opportunity to change things for the better?

Maybe through your film work?

I don't think that filmmakers are changing anything.

I feel like we're just, we're just observing, you know?

Like, we're just observing the change.

But we are just observing, creating stories that reflects the community.

And we put it on the screen.

And of course, it affects people.

But, I don't like the superhero thing, you know, with filmmakers.

It█s just like we're speaking about people's lives.

And sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's very intimate.

It's very private.

It's very like glorious, whatever.

And that's it.

And we die and we leave the films, and the films survive.

So, this is how I see it.

[Stephanie█s voice] Upon arriving in Egypt, I immediately became obsessed with the ancient Egyptian sites.

I saw something of our modern times and their vivid forms of pictorial storytelling.

The writers of ancient Egypt were deemed Scribes and were valued members of society.

Pharaohs built special tombs for their Scribes.

When I see the way that the Pharaohs used storytelling on their temple walls to craft their own narrative and shape society, I'm reminded of the sheer fact that history repeats itself time and time again.

The stories we see from these rulers thousands of years ago: kings exaggerating their conquests, branding their dynasties.

Humans valuing love and romance, lust and desire, competing with one another for power.

Rewriting history to suit their own needs.

It amazes me that the present leaders of Egypt, America and elsewhere around the world use very similar tactics to the ones 3000, 4000 and 5000 years ago.

I wondered, how does this multi- millennia worth of storytelling seep into the creative minds of present day filmmakers?

[Wael] Egyptians have a storytelling focus.

So we are, our culture.

So Arabs, you may have read or heard have a very oral culture, And the way we socialize most generally is in sort of hangouts where there isn't a lot of dancing and there isn█t a lot of numbers and entertainment.

It's just like there's a lot of talking and sharing stories.

[Stephanie█s voice] I met up with acclaimed filmmaker, Wael Omar, in the Maadi neighborhood of Cairo, where he grew up and lives.

Wael has been drawn to the stage since an early age.

Acting his way through university, with a degree from Emerson College in Boston.

He then studied acting at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

Since then, he has produced films such as “In Search of Oil And Sand,” “Villa 69,” “The Dream of Shahrazad,” “Before The Summer Crowds” and “Kiss Me Not.” I had a stimulating conversation with Wael at his home in Maadi.

[Wael] I don't make film ever with a profit target.

Okay?

And there's nothing wrong with that.

I love Marvel films.

Ok?

I love Marvel films, but my motive is always to, irruminate, it█s to illuminate, it█s to revise a public record of some kind or, you know, make it a little less murky, or bringing in a new perspective.

And I always feel like that's playing into a more humanities focus.

[Stephanie] Ancient Egypt had at least 32 known dynasties.

Sometimes it was occupied by foreign leaders and it passed through the hands of the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, who were conquered by the Byzantines, and eventually the Arabs, who brought an Islam.

To the Mamluks and the Ottomans, with a brief appearance by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Most scholars consider the start of modern Egypt as a rise of Muhammad Ali, the Albanian Prince.

Ali modernized Egypt's army, built a navy, roads, canals, initiated public education, improved irrigation, and planted cotton, which is still one of Egypt█s largest exports.

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened, which became a major trade route eventually leading to Great Britain█s takeover.

In 1882, the era of the “veiled protectorate” began, with Muhammad Ali's heirs remaining on the throne under British influence.

In 1919, Britain granted Egypt its sovereignty.

King Fuad was followed by King Farouk until he was ousted in a military coup in 1952, led by Colonel Nasser and the Free Officers Corps.

President Nasser became the first Egyptian to rule Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs.

[Wael] You know, the history plays a big part, and, in that, we've been an oppressed, or, a conquered people for, for so long.

And conquered people all they have are stories.

Why?

Because that's what gets you through the day when you're oppressed, you know, when you have to stand four hours in a bread line, sort of sharing that experience with other people that know that experience or whatever.

You know what I mean?

That's how Egyptians are.

And having, making light of it.

So I feel like this is healing the collective trauma.

[Stephanie] And what's interesting, too, is how it█s also the conquerors who are recording stories.

And, you know, they have to prove their right to the throne, to the people.

And so, they're creating mythology to put on the walls to prove like, “oh, I was birthed by this God.” [Wael] Yeah.

And it never, it never ended.

And it█s, I mean, it's a sort of a phenomenon anywhere in the world, but like, it█s been an especially, emphatic tool of any regime.

[Stephanie] You are one of the oldest civilizations in the world, how do you kind of experience being Egyptian with that grand centuries and centuries and centuries, millennia worth of history behind you?

[Mina] It really affects us.

We feel like this multi-layer thing, you know?

And there's many sites, even organically.

Here in Alexandria there's two other cities underneath us.

Like you can see there's another city below.

And this is, it reflects on us as well.

So of course, when you visited those places, those walls, it just simply because people wanted to be remembered.

[Stephanie█s voice] After President Nasser died in 1970 Anwar Sadat took over.

Sadat was assassinated.

Vice President, Hosni Mubarak succeeded Sadat and ruled for the next 30 years.

On February 11, 2011, Mubarak resigned the presidency as a result of the Tahrir Square protests ignited by the Arab Spring.

During the Arab Spring revolutions, Egyptians from all walks of life gathered.

Many were fighting against the widespread corruption, and fighting for freedom of speech and civil liberties.

Many filmmakers participated in the Arab Spring, and as this was the early stages of smartphones and social media, the people found a new way to share their voices and to be heard.

When I started to work on my graduation project, that was 2011 and the revolution started at that time.

And it was kind of trendy to make films about the revolution at that time.

But my film was just about a parallel time for a pharmacist.

During the curfew after the revolution.

And that was like two months after the revolution.

And that was, of course, that inspired it.

But what inspires me is the quietness of the streets, the emptiness of the city.

So, I moved to take it from a poetic point of view, more.

And, I didn't expect that film to... anybody to like it, but it was a good success.

So yeah, that was my first short.

[Stephanie] What's the name of it?

[Mina] It's called Away From The Heat.

[Stephanie] Do you think... any of that sparked maybe a younger generation of people to use their creative voice any differently?

To go out and pick up a camera?

I think the year 2011 was the era of people using photography cameras, and they're filming video with it.

So of course, like, everybody was filming everything.

Not just film.

I'm talking about all different artforms.

Music has changed, or, graffiti, like the cities was full of graffiti and films was being more about the revolution.

You know?

Of course it was a great, like, way of expressing ourselves and... but like, people didn't think about what's going to happen after it, just like the moment of, like the whole nation is rising up.

And, of course, many films was about the revolution in that time.

[Stephanie█s voice] In 2012, what is considered Egypt's first true democratic election, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected by popular vote.

Morsi then granted himself unlimited powers and pushed through a pro-Islamist constitution.

In 2013, there was another military coup led by Defense Minister Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, I discuss the impact and aftermath of the Arab Spring revolution with Wael, who, incidentally, was 33-years-old at the time of the revolution.

[Wael] I had a dogma at the beginning of the revolution about not going to the square as a filmmaker and going as an activist and being like, we need to be part of this fight, not documenting it.

You know, this is our generation's fight, essentially.

And then I was very much, there█s a line I drew between myself and, some of my fellow filmmakers, who I felt were exploiting the event and really trying to get as much you know, prestige, or play.

And thinking back, I think I was wrong, think I was wrong because it was important, to given given the erasure that's happened, it was very important for things to have been, you know, filmed in those moments when things were peaking and there was this chaos and, you know what I mean?

This was just a different document and a different form of recording, you know, and a different story.

But it's not right or wrong.

[Stephanie█s voice] We spent a lot of time discussing Wael█s feature documentary, “In Search of Oil and Sand.” I am fascinated by this film.

“In Search of Oil and Sand” is about a movie made by the royal family in Egypt, just days before the 1952 coup d'etat that ended the monarchy.

The director of this fictional film was a princess married to the King of Egypt.

The plot involves oil and conflicting interests between the Americans, British and Arabs.

The original copy of the Princess█s “Oil and Sand” movie was destroyed.

And so, Wael█s doc is focused on the Princess's surviving son trying to piece together the film and learn more about his family and their moviemaking endeavors.

Coincidentally, Wael was shooting this documentary focused on an event that led into the 1952 revolutionary coup, In 2011, at the same time as the Arab Spring Revolution was taking place.

[Wael] At the beginning, the first few days, weeks, you're not sure exactly where you are, but like, as it moved forward, as, you know, the military sort of started gaining prominence and sort of the popular movement, and sort of then, kind of took over the popular movement.

And then there was the Muslim Brotherhood, and they came and sort of at the beginning helped the military and sort of resisted the political left and, you know, sort of like cleared the space for, you know, sort of the new regime.

Come on, this is sort of a perfect... ... right?

Loop.

I really resisted that because we were in a current... We were in a news cycle story in the middle of a news cycle story.

And whatever we would conclude from that time, would have to, and put into the documentary, would have to stand on its feet forever.

And I had a real problem time proofing, you know, time proofing this thing.

[Mina] I feel like cinema reflects the society all the time.

And, the society going through challenges and like difficulties and like good times and bad times and everything is changing.

And of course, the cinemas, are not changing, but it reflects the society somehow.

So that's why, wherever I go, I want to see, local films, because you understand the country more through the eye of the cinema or like the screen, the big screen.

[Stephanie█s voice] There is an understandable pride amongst present day Egyptians of their glorious ancestry.

Those who built the pyramids and advanced so much in human civilization from agriculture to language to storytelling, religion, science and beyond.

Standing in these ancient sites, learning about the destroying, defacing, reusing, and rebuilding of it all, shows us, layer upon layer upon layer of history that have passed through these places.

It's awe inspiring.

It's humbling.

It allows one to contemplate.

And perhaps that's all we can do as storytellers, as filmmakers, as citizens of the world.

Let us take a moment to see what came before and know that these stories, symbols, languages and images do still influence us today.

Let us be conscientious of how we craft the stories for future generations to retell.

Just as Mina, Wael and other brave Egyptian filmmakers continue to do in modern, innovative ways.

To learn more about the “Cinema Nomad” filmmakers, and dive deeper into the exciting world of global cinema, visit our website, CinemaNomad.TV [Steadee█s footprints] “Steadee on!” [film slate]