[5] Jerzy Kawalerowicz, who had previously directed such films as Cellulose (1953), Under the Phrygian Star (1954), The Shade (1956), The Real End of the Great War (1957), Night Train (1959) and Mother Joan of the Angels (1961), turned in the 1960s to Bolesław Prus' novel Pharaoh because, he said, "There are brilliant things in it....

Kawalerowicz's co-author of the scenario, Tadeusz Konwicki, commented: "It's not a historical novel in the full sense of the word, it's above all a penetrating analysis of a system of power....

"[6] Pharaoh's production took three years, beginning in the fall of 1962 with the setting up of a studio in Łódź which did in-depth studies of the costumes and realia of life in ancient Egypt.

An artificial island was created on Lake Kirsajty, near Giżycko, Poland, and planted with palms and lotus for the scene involving Ramses' row on the Nile with Sara.

[6] Mass scenes were filmed mainly in the Soviet Union, in the Uzbek SSR's part of the Kyzyl Kum Desert (now Uzbekistan).

Hazards included sand vipers and venomous spiders that launched themselves at people from a couple of yards' distance.

[8] Other themes include the friendship with Pentuer the priest, the love for Sara the beautiful Jewess and Kama the priestess.

It is also the story of the secret pact with Assyria, the Solar eclipse and how the priests used it to subdue the crowds, and the assassination of Ramses XIII at the hands of his look-alike.