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Director(s):
WILNER (FREDERIC)
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Producer(s):
ILIADE PRODUCTIONS, ARTE FRANCE
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Territories:
Worldwide.
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Production year:
2025
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Language(s):
German, English, French
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Rights:
TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD
Why does Vizier Weni the Elder, who lived some 4,300 years ago, have two tombs? And why did he refuse to be buried next to Pepi I Meryre, the divine figure who opened the gates to eternal life for him? As Egyptologists make the discovery of one of his tombs, they investigate this enigmatic figure and an era that was both a golden age for ancient Egypt and the beginning of its decline.
Recent discoveries suggest that profound political and religious changes were at work in Egypt during the time when the vizier became one of Egypt’s highest officials under Pepi I Meryre. Egyptologists from the Franco-Swiss archaeological mission to Saqqara are attempting to uncover important and magnificent remains from this golden age of Egyptian civilization, with their sights set on a mysterious tomb they believe to be that of Weni the Elder, a great figure and vizier during the reign of Pepi I Meryre. However, he already had his own tomb, which was discovered in 1860 by Auguste Mariette and his team, in the necropolis of Abydos, 400 km away from Saqqara, where he held high office until his death. It was here that his monumental biography was found, engraved in a three-meter-long limestone block: a famous biography which, when compared to inscribed blocks that were unearthed at Saqqara, led Philippe Collombert to think that it could be Weni the Elder.