In the Land of the Black Pharaohs
Charles Bonnet, 71, is one of Europe’s leading archeologists. Geneva-born Bonnet, originally a wine grower, has been combing through the sands of northern Sudan for 40 years. His work has exposed the importance of the Nubian civilisation, the famous “black pharaohs”, and of Kerma, the first capital of the great African empire. The major findings made by him and his team have enabled the Sudanese population, which has been torn apart by decades of civil war, to rediscover some of its national identity. This film follows Charles Bonnet and his archeological dig. His team consists of ten or so researchers including Mathieu Honegger, a young prehistorian who has just discovered the oldest necropolis in the Nile valley at Kerma, and Louis Chaix, a former Beneditine monk and retired archaeozoologist. Year after year they return to Sudan hoping to make more exciting discoveries.