As a young boy in Buenos Aires, I had few modern superheros. I loved the Lone Ranger (el Llanero Solitario), Superhombre and Tarzán – El Rey de la Jungla on the radio but I really relished my weekly Pato Donald and Ratón Mickey comic books that my mother purchased for me at the Coghlan train station.


My real heroes were flesh and blood from a distant past (except of course the more modern Tarzán Rey de la Jungla). I had admiration for Achilles and I was fascinated by ancient Egypt. My interest in Pato Donald and ancient Egypt found a locus point when Donald Duck and his nephews somehow found themselves in Ancient Egypt. I was completely enthralled and from that day on I became a little amateur Egyptologist.

Then in 1955 when we had moved to Mexico City my mother informed me that she was going to the inaugural of a brand new Cine Polanco that had avant-garde architectural approach to movie theatres. My sketch is at odds with the photograph as you can see that there seem to be apartments over the theatre. Perhaps the theatre was at right angles to the entrance. The fact was that I remember that getting into the Cine Polanco there was a steep slope.

My mother told me that we were going to see The Egyptian. It had two of my favourite actresses, Gene Tierney and Jean Simmons. I was further informed that one of the stars was a British man who was an Adonis. His name was Edmund Purdom.

When I saw this film I was immediately interesting in the pharaoh in question, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti.

In all the years that have passed I have amassed lots of facts about this early monotheist. For a while I was confused about the two sort of wild civilizations he had contact with – the Hyksos and the Hittites. In the film much is about the fact that the Hittites were pioneers in iron weaponry and had brought into military tactics the use of the horse-drawn chariot.

I was much to young to appreciate that the Egyptian was one of the earliest appearances of Peter Ustinov. I was much too drawn to Tierney and Simmons to notice Bella Darvi and Anitra Stevens.  I did not know that Michael Wilding, who plays the pharaoh was at the time married to Elizabeth Taylor. I had yet to notice Taylor. I had first seen Victor Mature in Buenos Aires when my parents had taken me to the premiere in Argentina of the first Cinemascope film The Robe. I have always thought that Mature in spite of his muscled body seemed to be suffering from a constant existential angst. In the Egyptian Mature plays a Horenheb, a general who may have invented the coup d’etat. He summarily got rid of Akhenaten’s son, the Famous King Tut and established himself as pharaoh.

For some years I have wanted to go to a performance of Philip Glass’ Akhenaten. It might mean waiting for many more years for that opera to make it to Vancouver.

Akhenaten - Opera - Act 1
Akhenaten - Opera - Act 2
Akhenaten - Opera- Act 3

Last year I met up with Olena at my hairdresser. I was struck by the shape of her body so I did this.