Faaraoiden maa / The Land of the Pharaohs (1988) (in person: Peter von Bagh)

Mika Waltari: Sinuhe egyptiläinen / The Egyptian (FI 1945). A historical novel, a Bildungsroman, a picaresque novel, subtitled: "Fifteen Books from the Life of Physician Sinuhe, ca 1390–1335 BCE. Book cover art to the 11th Finnish edition (1974): Björn Landström.

FI 1988. PC: Yleisradio. D+SC: Peter von Bagh – excerpts from the novel The Egyptian (1945) by Mika Waltari – a compilation film made for television – based on Finnish fiction and non-fiction films from the years 1945–1946. ED: Pentti Kauranen, Risto Salo. 29 min – Orion 2013: digibeta / Yle Export. – Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (How My Films Were Made), 15 Feb 2013.

In the presence of Peter von Bagh. In the conclusion of his preceding lecture and in his introduction to the screening he commented: The Land of the Pharaohs is a film about the year 1945, about Finland which had lost the war. It is my nearly most unknown film. It has never been telecast again.

"Excerpts from Mika Waltari's classic of popular historical fiction, Sinuhe, egyptilainen (1945), considered as comments on postwar Finland. A lean work, clear in its conception, straight-forward in its execution, muscular in its movement, and deep in its thoughts. Splendid." (Olaf Möller, Rotterdam Film Festival, 2012)

A poetic, multi-perspective essay on the devastating year 1945 seen through two kinds of reflections. The first reflection is Mika Waltari's novel The Egyptian, one of the biggest bestsellers of all times in Finland, and a bestseller even abroad, including the United States, where it was the basis for one of the first CinemaScope films, unfortunately miscast. The second set of reflections is provided by the fictional and non-fictional films of the time. The images of the refugees (from Stalin's Eastern Karelia) and the devastation of Lapland (by Nazi German soldiers) are among the most poignant in Finnish history. Yet there is in the imagery a confidence of perseverance, survival, and a new start via reconstruction and a new political landscape.

Rough notes: – The presence of the voice of Mika Waltari. – Passages from Mika Waltari's novel The Egyptian fill the screen. – ♪ "Kesäpäivä Kangasalla" ["A Summer Day at Kangasala", a national romantic evergreen.] – When the first atom bomb hit Hiroshima. – Korpisoturin keittokirja = [The Cookbook of the Deep Forest Warrior]. – Evakot = the refugees from the lost Eastern Karelia. – "Leivättä ei matka luista" = you cannot keep going without food. – Essi Renvall, sculptor. – ♪ an Italian romantic song. – Finnish "war children" in the safety of Sweden. – Kalervo Kallio sculpts Risto Ryti. – The war is over, la guerre est finie. – At the station. – The hospital. – The soldier's homecoming. – Dancing. – Destiny follows you. – Mika Waltari: I did not have the slightest interest to visit Egypt. – The ruins of the devastated Rovaniemi. – Rehabilitation. – The Social Democrats. – The Marshal Mannerheim gives his vote. – Paasikivi speaks: we need new faces. – The First of May parades of the workers. – Paasikivi meets Zhdanov. – The Salvation Army. – The numerous attendance of women. – ♪ "Me vielä kerran kohdataan" ["We'll Meet Again", not the Vera Lynn song ]. – Paasikivi's diaries written in stenographic writing. – Love is but an episode in a man's life. – Postcards from Egypt. – ♪ "Kesäpäivä Kangasalla".

...

IL CINEMA RITROVATO, BOLOGNA 2015

FAARAOIDEN MAA

In short

Italian Title: [La terra dei faraoni]

Director: Peter von Bagh

Year: 1988

Country: Finlandia

Running time: 29'

Film Version

Finnish version

Sound

Edition   2015

Peter von Bagh

[The Land of the Pharaohs] M.: Pentti Kauranen, Heikki Salo. Prod.: Terttu Talonen per Yleisradio, TV1, Teatteritoimitus . DCP. D.: 29’. Bn.

Film Notes

"Mika Waltari had been working on The Egyptian (1945), his classic of popular historical fiction, for quite some time: researching the period, taking notes, constructing the narrative etc. Still, it’s difficult to ignore when he sat down to finally write this rather hefty tome: the immediate postwar months; and he did so quickly, hammering ten thousands and ten thousands of words into his typewriter inside a few weeks. For von Bagh, the ancient Egypt of Waltari is really the Finland of ’44, his descriptions of suffering a not-exactly-thinly-veiled portrait of the nations down on its knees, tired and bloody. And so, Faaraoiden maa took shape: excerpts from The Egyptian would comment on choice newsreel shots. Another of those intriguingly simple von Bagh-concepts that made for a fine piece of cinema – a lean work, straight-forward in its execution, muscular in its movement, deep in its thoughts."