Egypt's Modern Pharaos

In 1952, the revolution put an end to the monarchy in Egypt. Tracing the development of the country, the latest documentary trilogy by Egyptian documentary filmmaker Jihan El-Tahri focusses on the visions of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak.

In this presentation, the documentary film maker Jihan El-Tahri, who has examined aspects of recent African history in a legendary way with films such as Cuba: An African Odyssey and Behind the Rainbow, will present and discuss excerpts from her new documentary film trilogy. In the three part film El-Tahri traces the development of her native Egypt since 1952 – the year of the revolution which put an end to the monarchy. Egypt’s Modern Pharaohs, the result of years of archive work, dedicates a film to each of the three figures who have shaped and ruled Egypt since 1952: Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak. The trilogy describes, in a previously unseen and untold fashion, how modern Egypt has been shaped by both its relationship with other powers and conflicts between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood.