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.