KEMET: YEAR ONE Builds Global Momentum as Desert Eagle Films Prepares Festival Run and Expands the Film’s World

Following an encouraging early reception, Desert Eagle Films is preparing its prehistoric Egyptian epic for the international festival circuit as the film’s original soundtrack launches worldwide and plans continue for its Egyptian premiere.

CAIRO — September 2026 — Desert Eagle Films is preparing Kemet: Year One for the next stage of its journey, following a strong early response from critics, audiences and industry figures who have experienced the film through its first screenings.

Set in 9186 BC, more than 11,000 years ago, Kemet: Year One takes audiences into an Egypt that predates the pyramids, pharaohs and dynasties that have defined the country’s image on screen for generations.

Rather than returning to familiar Ancient Egyptian iconography, the film explores something far earlier: communities shaped by survival, family, conflict, experimentation and the constant need to adapt.

Now, following its initial audience rollout, Desert Eagle Films is turning its attention toward the international festival circuit, while continuing preparations for the film’s long-awaited Egyptian premiere.

“We always knew Kemet was going to have a different journey because it is a different kind of film,” said Mo Ismail, writer, director, producer and lead actor of Kemet: Year One. “There wasn’t a blueprint for a film set in Egypt in 9186 BC. We wanted to make the film first, put it in front of real people, listen to the response and then build the next stage from there.”

A Promising First Response

Rather than immediately launching the film through a wide commercial release, Desert Eagle Films initially introduced Kemet: Year One through a limited regional rollout in over 90 different cinema locations, allowing the studio to test the waters and observe how audiences would respond to its unconventional world and setting.

The early results have been encouraging.

The film has been well received by critics and early viewers, with particular attention given to its cinematography, natural locations, performances, scale and depiction of a period of Egyptian history almost completely absent from mainstream cinema.

The film has also been shown at private screenings to a number of prominent voices from the entertainment, cultural and professional communities. Those screenings have provided the filmmakers with another important measure of how the story translates outside its home region.

For Ismail, that response has reinforced one of the central ambitions behind the project.

“The greatest compliment for me has been watching people forget that they are looking at a film set 11,000 years ago and simply connect with the people,” Ismail said. “The environment is prehistoric Egypt, but the emotions are not prehistoric. It is about fathers and sons, fear, responsibility, survival, conflict and what human beings are capable of when they have no choice but to adapt.”

That universality is now becoming increasingly important as Desert Eagle Films & BUC Studios prepare the film for audiences beyond the region.

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  Kemet: Year One

The Festival Journey Begins

The studio is currently preparing Kemet: Year One for an international festival run, with submissions and screening opportunities forming the next major phase of the film’s release strategy.

The aim is to introduce the film to programmers, critics, filmmakers, distributors and international audiences while allowing the production to compete and be evaluated as an original piece of world cinema.

For Desert Eagle Films, the strategy is also an opportunity to demonstrate that films originating in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East do not have to abandon their cultural identity to travel internationally.

“We are not interested in making an Egyptian film that tries to look like somebody else’s cinema,” Ismail said. “The goal is to create something that could only have come from here, but make it with enough cinematic ambition that somebody in Cairo, Los Angeles, Tokyo or London can sit down and become invested in the same story.”

Festival selections and screening announcements will be revealed individually as they are confirmed.

The Sound of Kemet Is Now Worldwide

As the film begins that next chapter, another major element of Kemet: Year One has officially reached audiences around the world.

The Kemet: Year One Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, composed by Marwan Haroun, is now streaming globally across major music platforms.

Creating the sound of a world set more than 11,000 years ago presented the filmmakers with the same challenge faced throughout the production: there was little interest in simply reproducing the familiar sounds and imagery associated with dynastic Egypt.

Instead, months of research, recording and experimentation went into developing a score rooted in earth sounds, natural textures, ancient rhythmic influences and organic instrumentation, while still carrying the scale and emotion expected from a contemporary cinematic score.

The result became an essential part of the film’s identity, moving between moments of intimacy, danger, discovery and conflict while remaining closely connected to the natural environment surrounding the characters.

“We wanted the music to feel as though it came from the earth before it came from an orchestra,” Ismail said. “It needed to have something raw inside it. Marwan understood that immediately, and what he created became a huge part of the DNA of the film.”

The worldwide soundtrack release now allows audiences to enter the world of Kemet independently of the film itself as its theatrical and festival journey continues.

Egypt Before the Egypt We Know

At its core, Kemet: Year One follows a father separated from his family after a violent encounter on the Nile forces him into a dangerous journey across an unforgiving prehistoric landscape. Back home, his son and village face an escalating threat from a hostile neighboring clan.

Against that survival story, the film explores a larger idea: civilization did not suddenly appear. It developed through generations of people being forced to solve problems, protect one another, understand their environment and create new ways of surviving.

That philosophy ultimately became the film’s central statement:

Survival Sparks Civilization.

The production was filmed extensively across Aswan, Kom Ombo, Lake Nasser and the surrounding Nubian and desert landscapes of southern Egypt, with practical locations playing a central role in establishing the world of the story.

Shot using RED digital cinema systems at resolutions of up to 8K, the production also placed a major emphasis on emerging regional talent, with approximately 95 percent of the film’s performers appearing as new faces.

Bringing Kemet Home

While preparations for the international festival circuit move forward, Desert Eagle Films is also continuing work toward the film’s official Egyptian premiere.

For a project conceived, filmed and produced in Egypt, the home-market premiere remains one of the most important milestones in the film’s journey.

“Egypt is not simply another territory for this film,” Ismail said. “This is where Kemet was born, where we shot it, where our cast came together and where these landscapes gave the movie its identity. Bringing the film home properly matters to us, and when we announce that next step, we want it to be worthy of everything the team put into making it.”

Official details surrounding the Egyptian premiere will be announced once final arrangements are completed.

In the meantime, Desert Eagle Films will continue preparing Kemet: Year One for its festival journey, developing its wider distribution strategy and releasing new material from the world of the film.

What began as an ambitious attempt to imagine Egypt before recorded history is now preparing to meet a much larger audience.

And for Desert Eagle Films, the journey is still only beginning.

Survival Sparks Civilization.

KEMET: YEAR ONE

A Desert Eagle Films x BUC Studios Production

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Now streaming worldwide on all music platforms: https://tinyurl.com/KemetSoundtrack

Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lWEIO-d83c

Desert Eagle Films: www.deserteaglefilms.com