The recent world premiere (March 13, 2007) in Cairo of Princess of the Sun, a French animated film set in ancient Egypt, has Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) a little bent out of shape.
This fantasy movie, directed by Philippe Leclerc, is set during the reign of King Akhenaten’s reign. For those of you who don’t know, King Akhenaten was King Tutankhamun’s father and raised much ire during his reign for his monotheistic beliefs.
Hawass has released an official statement stating accepted history and how the movie portrayed fictional events and characters. (Imagine that — an animated movie with fictional events and characters set along with real ones. How shocking!)
To allow the release of this film in Egypt, the SCA asked the Egyptian film distributor, Good News Group, to counsel the audience (in both English and Arabic) that the story is a fantasy and that it has nothing to do with real ancient Egyptian historical facts.
Gilles Adriens and Hadrien Soulez Lariviere wrote the script for Princess of the Sun based on an original work by Christian Jacq.
For More Information
King Akhenaten
www.heptune.com/Akhnaten.html
www.touregypt.net/18dyn10.htm
www.egyptologyonline.com/akhenaten1.htm
Historial Inacuricies of the Film
guardians.net/hawass/articles/princess_of_the_sun.htm
Princess of the Sun
www.unifrance.org/films/detail_film.asp?cfilm=25025&CommonUser=&langue=21002
