Saladin

Youssef Chahine's Al Nasser Salah Ad-Din (1963) is Egyptian cinema's answer to the Hollywood historical epic. Ahmed Mazhar plays Saladin, trying to retake Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. It was Chahine's first film in colour and his largest-scale work to that point; the budget was big enough to bankrupt its producer. What draws most interest today is less who it is about than when it was made. Shot at the height of pan-Arabism, under Nasser, it openly turns the figure of Saladin into an image summoning the unity of its own moment. Naguib Mahfouz is among the names credited on the script. Mass battle scenes, siege engines and heavy colour costuming show what the Egyptian studio system of the period could do. Chahine does not draw the Crusaders as uniformly evil; he places calculating figures on Richard's side and elsewhere. Still, the film never hides that it is arguing a case. Who it's for: those who enjoy historical epics and want to see Arab cinema constructing its own account. Who it's not for: viewers seeking historical accuracy; this Saladin is shaped far more by twentieth-century politics than by the twelfth century.