Nadim Sawalha

This is a conflation of the stories of the birth of Jesus found in biblical accounts by Matthew and Luke. Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) lives in the small town of Nazareth. She's still young enough to play with the other children of the town, although she must also work to help her poor family get by. The people of the town can barely pay the king's taxes. When one of their neighbors loses his daughter to involuntary servitude to pay off a tax debt, Mary is forced into a betrothal by her parents to Joseph (Oscar Isaac), a young homebuilder who has had his eye on Mary. They're told they must not consummate the marriage for a year. Mary's not happy with the arrangement. She barely knows Joseph; she certainly does not love him. But then an angel (Alexander Siddig) appears to Mary, telling her she's been chosen by God to bear the Son of God, who will save their people. She's told her cousin Elizabeth (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who's ostensibly too old to have children, is already pregnant, which is proof God can do anything. Mary agrees to the angel's request, and then travels to see Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the wife of Zechariah (Stanley Townsend), a priest who was told in the temple his aged wife would conceive and bear a son, who was to be named John. Zechariah didn't believe it, so he lost his ability to speak. When Mary shows up, Elizabeth seems to know all about Mary's impending pregnancy, saying her own child leapt in her womb. Mary tells Elizabeth she's scared, since the law requires she remain pure. She thinks nobody will believe she's kept her vows. Elizabeth comforts her, telling her to trust God. Mary stays until Elizabeth's child is born. Zechariah gets his voice back when he insists the boy be named John. Mary, who is now pregnant, decides she had better return home. When she comes back noticeably pregnant, however, the whole town is scandalized, and Joseph is broken hearted. Mary's parents can't believe Mary; they fear she might have been raped by one of Herod's soldiers. They tell her she could be put to death for violating her vows. Joseph agrees not to press charges, but he's upset and bitter. The town shuns Mary. But then Joseph sees the same angel in a dream who tells him Mary's telling the truth, and so he takes her back, which now makes him an outcast in the town, too. Meanwhile, evil King Herod (Ciarán Hinds) is worried about a prophecy of a new king who will be a Messiah for his people. He thinks some usurper may make political use of the prophecy to start an uprising. He decides to take advantage of Caesar's desire for a census to make everyone return to his ancestral home. Since the Messiah is to come from David's lineage, Herod thinks he can trap the pretender in Bethlehem, the City of David. Joseph is a descendant of David, so Herod's order also forces Joseph to go to Bethlehem. Mary agrees to go with him, so they undertake an arduous journey, during which Mary comes to see Joseph as a good, self-sacrificing man. Affection and trust grows between them. At about the same time, three magi in Persia, who have also been studying prophecy, decide to travel to Judea because the alignment of a star with two planets tells them a new king will be born there. They load up some camels and take off across the desert. At a stopover in Jerusalem, they tell Herod the Messiah king will not be a grown man, but a little baby. Herod pretends he wants to pay homage to the new king, too, and asks them to return with directions once they've located him. After they leave, Herod hatches a terrible idea. He decides he can put an end to the people's hope in the prophecy by killing all the babies in Bethlehem. Just as Mary and Joseph reach Bethlehem, Mary starts contractions. Joseph runs around looking for a place for her delivery, but all that's offered is a stable. Just as she gives birth, the three celestial bodies line up, and a shaft of light falls on the stable. Following the advice of the angel, some shepherds show up to see, including one who showed kindness to Mary and Joseph earlier. Mary tells him her baby is born for all mankind. The shepherds are followed by the magi. The magi present their gifts of gold for the king of kings, frankincense for the priest of priests, and myrrh for the one who must sacrifice. After they leave, Mary and Joseph go to sleep, but then Herod's soldiers begin their terrible infanticide. Just in the nick of time, the angel's voice warns Joseph. So, as the soldiers start slaughtering the innocents, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus are already out of town, heading for Egypt.

A secret agent in Turkey is persuaded by his superiors to assist a couple of English cons in the theft of a priceless Greek statue. 1908: Basil Pascali (Sir Ben Kingsley), a spy for the Sultan, sends reports to Istanbul that nobody reads. His suspicions are roused when a British archeologist appears, who may not be quite what he seems. —Cleo <frede005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>

Egyptologist Erica Baron finds more than she bargained for during her long-planned trip to The Land of the Pharoahs: murder, theft, betrayal, love, and a mummy's curse. Egyptologist Erica Baron (Lesley-Anne Down) is researching for a paper on Mernephtah, chief architect to Pharaoh Seti I. She meets with unscrupulous art dealer Abdu-Hamdi (John Gielgud) and witnesses him being threatened by black-market dealer Stephanos Markoulis (John Rhys-Davies). Abdu-Hamdi shows Erica a statue of Seti I that may prove there is a secret burial chamber filled with treasures within Seti's tomb. Erica witnesses Abdu-Hamdi being murdered by unidentified men and is rescued by French journalist Yvon Mageot (Maurice Ronet). He is interested in Erica's research, but his motives remain unclear. Erica then meets Dr. Akmed Khazzan (Frank Langella), who is head of the antiquities division for the government, and is also interested to know what Erica has learned about a secret chamber. He provides her a bodyguard who is promptly murdered, possibly by the same people who murdered Abdu-Hamdi. Despite continued threats from Markoulis and continued hindrance from Mageot, Erica is determined to learn all she can, no matter the risk. She also finds herself falling for Khazzan, which leads her further into ancient mysteries and intrigue.

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger Prince Kassim (Damien Thomas) is transformed during his coronation as Caliph of the city and kingdom of Charak (1) into a baboon by his stepmother, the witch Queen Zenobia (Margaret Whiting), who wants the throne for her own son, Rafi (Kurt Christian). The Prince's sister, Princess Farah (Jane Seymour), seeks the help of her betrothed, Sinbad (Patrick Wayne), whilst Rafi, disguised as a merchant, tries to kill Sinbad and his crew (one, Aboo Seer (David Sterne) is poisoned) with the aid of three weapon-wielding ghouls (2) (created as stop-motion models, like most of the non-human cast, by Ray Harryhausen) brought from the depths of the earth by his mother's magic: Sinbad crushingly destroys these using falling logs. A discussion the following morning on Sinbads ship between the Princess, her uncle Balsora (Bruno Barnaby), Sinbad and his crew members Hassan (Nadim Sawalha) and Maroof (Salami Coker) discovers that the only possible saviour of Prince Kassim is the Greek sage Melanthius (Patrick Troughton), who lives on the rock-and-reef-ringed fog-bound island of Cascar (3). Zenobia however, having followed Balsora to confront him, learns of their plans. Sinbad and the Princess set sail for Cascar with the enchanted Prince, who astounds the crew by being able to write and play chess. Zenobia, fearing Melanthius may well be able to cure Kassim, decides to follow on a compact bronze boat with Rafi, rowed by their servant, the Minaton (4) (stand-in Peter Mayhew), a colossal bronze minotaur-automaton made by Rafi and animated by Zenobias magic. Balsora's guard on Zenobia, Zabid (Bernard Kay), is capsized and then skewered by the Minaton during their escape. On Cascar, after a brief encounter with rock-tossing inhabitants, Sinbad persuades Melanthius and his daughter Dione (Taryn Power) of the reality of Prince Kassim's condition, and to help: Melanthius reveals that the only cure will be to journey to the land of the former Arimaspi (5) at Hyperborea, a green valley in the polar regions maintained by the Arimaspi's powers, captured in the pyramidal Shrine of the Four Elements there to which he fortunately has the key, map and sailing directions. Speed is of the essence, as not only must Prince Kassim be crowned before seven moons have passed or renounce the Caliphate, but he will also gradually lose his remaining human abilities. However Kassim is befriended by Dione, who brings him fruit and practices writing with him. Zenobia, having been delayed by her boat being damaged when approaching Cascar, transforms herself by means of a magic potion into a seagull to fly to Sinbads ship, and there resumes her human form in miniature to spy out Melanthius plans. Spotted by Kassim, and caught by Melanthius, she learns of the trip to the lands of the Arimaspi, and is able to memorize the map, but when Melanthius uses some of the magic potion on a wasp (6), which grows to a giant size and attacks him, she is able to reclaim the potion vial, escape in seagull form, and return to her own boat. However there is now insufficient potion to effect the reverse transformation, and she retains a seagull's foot. The giant wasp is killed by Sinbad using a thrown dagger. Approaching the icebound polar regions, Sinbad passes by the ice-tunnel to the Arimaspi valley as being too small for his ship, and instead conducts his team on a journey by foot across the ice-pack (with Kassim in his cage on a sled), interrupted by a fight with a giant walrus, in which one crew member falls through the ice and another is stomped flat, to reach the outer part of the warm lands of Hyperborea, where they all relax. By this time Kassim has reverted almost wholly to animal nature, and only responds to Dione. Here the group encounters a giant Troglodyte, who shows them the way to the valley of the Arimaspi pyramid-shrine, and opens the valleys great gates for them. Meanwhile Zenobia, Rafi and the Minaton with their smaller boat have been able to take the ice-tunnel via a ruined temple directly to the shrine, where Zenobia forces an entrance using magic: however a falling stone block destroys the Minaton. Sinbad's party arrives at the now-failing shrine, where giant icicles crash down, and in a fight the baboon Kassim kills Rafi by rolling him down stairs to break his neck. Melanthius successfully restores Prince Kassim to human form by passing him in a gold cage through the fall of light from the Aurora Borealis, "the gift of the winter Apollo", within the shrine. However Zenobia vaporizes herself and possesses the body of a sabre-toothed tiger (smilodon), the guardian of the shrine, which mauls and kills the Troglodyte and Maroof before it is slain by Sinbad, firstly transfixing it with a gaff-spear originally used by the Minaton, and then using a scimitar for the coup de grace. The party escapes the collapsing shrine, which, with the whole of Hyperborea, now becomes covered in snow, and returns to Charak, where Kassim is duly installed as Caliph: he becomes enamoured of Dione, and gives his blessing to Sinbad and Princess Farah. The appearance of Zenobia's eyes at the end may mean all is not yet over Notes (1) This spelling is used on the original storyboard reproduced p185 in 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen', by Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton, 2006, Billboard Books, New York (2) Ibid. In the storyboard these are called 'nightmare figures' and 'zomboids' (and numbered as four, and illustrated as five, even though three eventually appear): Ray Harryhausen however refers to them consistently as 'ghouls' thereafter (3) Spelling uncertain: however, historically, 'Cascar' is the name given by Marco Polo to Kashgar, a city on the Silk Road (4) This spelling is that used by Ray Harryhausen: the original model is illustrated also p185 in 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen' (5) Historically, the Arimaspi were a legendary people of northern Scythia. The tales of their struggles with the gold-guarding griffins in the Hyperborean lands near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind, originate in a lost work by Aristeas. (6) That the insect is a wasp is confirmed by the survival of the original model: 'The Art of Ray Harryhausen' p 208