Pharaoh

Pharaoh (Faraon, 1966) is a Polish historical epic you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz from the 1895 novel by Bolesław Prus.

Young Ramses XIII takes the Egyptian throne with an empty treasury. The clergy controls the country's wealth and has no intention of releasing it. The war with Assyria ended in the pharaoh's military favor, but High Priest Herhor brokered the peace agreement without him — cutting Ramses out of his own victory. Ramses moves to break the priestly stranglehold over state finances. Herhor's response is measured and final: a double has been found, physically indistinguishable from the living ruler.

Jerzy Zelnik plays Ramses with the right mix of ambition and inexperience; Barbara Brylska and Wiesława Mazurkiewicz anchor the court around him. Three hours of screen time, thousands of extras, desert locations, reconstructed temple sets. The film picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Kawalerowicz built a political film before a spectacle — the conflict between a young ruler and an entrenched institution reads cleanly across any century. Stream Pharaoh (1966) online on iFILM.