If film acts as a “key institution for the production of national culture,” then this becomes exponentially true in the postcolonial moment. [1] By that measure, I present this work to articulate a mediation of race vis-à-vis indigeneity that confirms the ways in which racialization takes its own form in the Arab-speaking world, distinct from its Western counterpart. I argue that, in the eyes of the state, the Nubian people functioned as the locus for the reinvention of the Egyptian nation in the postcolonial moment: the essentialized qualities of the Nubian peasant would comprise the ibn/bint el-balad (son/daughter of the land) modality. In doing so, Nubian Egyptians ascertained the ‘authenticity’ of the state in relation to its ancient heritage, while also existing as an expression of backwards provincialism, painted in racialized overtones. To pose this question is to address the politics of belonging in a postcolonial nation that sought to “blatantly deny the existence of indigenous people”.[2] With funding from the Egyptian state, the film industry expanded into its ‘Golden Era,' continuing a legacy whereby the Nubian Egyptian acts as a mouthpiece; a silenced site through which the promise of Nasserism could be articulated, provided its people accede to its coercive practices. [1] Abu-Lughod, Lila. Dramas of Nationhood: the Politics of Television in Egypt, 7. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008. [2] Janmyr, Maja. “Human Rights and Nubian Mobilization in Egypt: towards Recognition of Indigeneity,” 718. Third World Quarterly 38, no. 3.2016.