Egyptian Ministry of Culture

Set in 1881, a year before the start of British colonial rule, it is based on the true story of the Abd el-Rasuls, an Upper-Egyptian clan that had been robbing a cache of mummies they have discovered at tomb DB320 near the village of Kurna, and selling the artifacts on the black market. After a conflict within the clan, one of its members made a crucial decision when the Antiquities Service arrived.

Love, passion, responsibility and loss follow a man over the course of half a century in this powerful drama from Egypt. In 1948, Hassan is working his first day on the job for a telegraph company when he has to deliver a telegram to Noura, a beautiful woman who is waiting on a ship docked in the harbor. The message is from Noura's fiancé, but when Hassan sees her, he acts on an impulse, and by the end of the day he's slept with Noura. In 1973, Hassan crosses paths with Noura again; her brother is in the hospital, and Hassan happens to meet Nadia, the beautiful woman's daughter who he may have fathered. And in 2001, elderly Hassan visits Cairo and meets Ali, Nadia's son, and both are taken aback at the similarities between them.

Confusion ensues when a man wins the lottery with a ticket he hadn't realized was stolen at the time he bought it.