Synopsis: Everything Under Heaven is a poignant journey through Egypt’s history, encapsulating time as a flux between the old and the new, converging the past and the future. The narrative focuses on the post-1952 era, where a newly formed state seeks to establish itself through grand infrastructural projects that reflect its national cosmology. However, as it battles against the tides of time, it faces challenges in aligning its infrastructure’s materiality with its story. It uncovers the paradoxical intersection of speculative statecraft and finance, scrutinizing their shared reliance on the hyperemotional—how belief makes itself real in the world. From the 1952 revolution’s national cosmology to the rise of global information technologies, the narrative chronicles the clash and synthesis of different cultural elements and the contorting face of sovereignty. As the city becomes an infinite algorithm, the film reveals a dystopian reality: a city that will never exist, perpetually caught in a loop of creation and consumption. The film is a mirror of the consequences of globalization, where the realm of territory transcends geographic and political borders. As the state’s power flows through the veins of cloud and fiber-optic cables, a revolution sparked in 2011, causing a rift in the national cosmology. The state, in a desperate attempt to regain its lost sovereignty, uses the desert as a canvas to carve out its new capital. “Everything Under Heaven” is a testament to how a nation’s identity evolves in its pursuit of sovereignty, financial speculation, and control over the sands of time.
