The Destiny (1997)
In the 12th century's Andalusia lives Ibn Rushd a prominent Islamic philosopher with his wife Zeinab and daughter Salma. The principality is ruled by Khalifa ElMansour who has two sons, ElNasser, an intellectual that likes Ibn Rush and is in love with his daughter Salma. The younger son Abdallah is more into dancing and poetry, spending most of his times with the gypsy family and getting the daughter pregnant. The Khalifa is depending on the extremists to build his army granting them more power which they use to combat artists and philosophers. The extremists succeed in recruiting Abd Allah and train him to kill his father. Events go on where Marawan, the gypsy singer, is killed and Ibn Rushd's books are burnt. Adapted from the real life of Ibn Rushd AlMasir is Chahine's statement against extremism.
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Simply Perfect
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Egyptian director Youssef Chahine biopic of Arab philosopher Averroes (who lived in Andalusia during the 1100s) is surprisingly compelling, with fine production values, including a lavish color cinematography (this was a co production with France that won awards at the Cannes film festival in 1997). Averroes (played by Nour el Sheriff) is seen in the movie, avant la lettre, as a wise champion of rationality and against fundamentalism. Aside having to fight the intrigue of fundamentalists, he has to do some optical experiments and also has to deal with family problems, a misguided caliph, and Christian troops eager to attack Andalusia. The movie also includes ridiculous but charming musical interludes reminiscent of Indian movies.
-one of the best movies i have ever saw...incredibly stunning...a movie that defies all genres and bringing them all in 1 classic film. the movie is dramatic, comedic, musical, historic, everyyyyyyyyythin...it shows that what is goin on now, in our lives, happened in the past..the world isnt changing...its just growing older...an incredible film...showing us more on the life of the islamic empire, the form of spain, the muslim extrimism and how long it begand and how it affects people...A MUST SEE MOVIE..u have to c it..i give it 10/10 with no ifs, ands or buts...EGYPTIAN FILMMAKER YOUSSEF CHAHINE HAS PROVEN TO BE THE BEST FILMMAKER THAT EVER LIVED BY DOING THIS FILM...surpasing all barriers, in a daring form of art...i consider this movie one of my favourite ever...so magical, mystical, phenominal....a trymph-you MKUST also check other excellent youssef chahine films, try to get them in any way..the movies i highly recomend are: Cairo Station, Alexandria Why, An Egyptian Story, The Immigrant, Silence we're rolling, Salahdine, The Other, The Sixth Day, and GoodBye Bonaparte...i saw all of these films..and u should too..these are the remarks and main original structure of cinema all around the world..
"The Ideas have Wings, you can never stop them from reaching the people".That was Al Massir, or the Destiny of Youssef Chahine. After his previous movie "El Mohager", Chahine was taken to court by a fundamentalist lawyer who claimed that Chahine presented the prophet Joseph in this movie and this is something forbidden "To show prophets on the screen" by Al Azhar. The lawyer wanted the court to stop showing the movie on the Egyptian screens as well as its distribution outside Egypt.Regardless of the final conclusion of the court, this case was the major motive behind the script of "Al Massir". Jo (Chahine) wanted to send a clear message to this people "You can never stop ideas from reaching the people, neither by burning the books (last scene of the movie), nor by forbidding movies, etc....' As usual, Averoes in this movie was Chahine himself. Trying to keep a good balance between what the history says about Averoes and what Chahine wanted to reflect on this character, he chose his characters to include all the contradictions he wanted to show. Politics, philosophy, love, integrism, etc.... they are everywhere. This idea of combining Islam with Terrorism bothers Chahine, that is why he started the movie with the french religious authorities burning a man who "Translated the books of this Averoes", so don't you be surprised when Muslims burn "Only" the books of Averoes. This analysis of Chahine is what really makes the movie special. It was expected after what happened to him in his last movie (as I said in the beginning), he could have just make it a good reason for a movie showing Muslims as Terrorists, an easy way to attract a Western spectator. But Jo chose the hard way to do it, showing that among all this terrorism, people are still "Life lovers" as mentioned by the first song. These people who just love their life were those fighting against terrorist - not with weapons - but with love. "We have to know first why they are doing this', said Averoes. Actors were really good specially Nour Elsherif, Mahmoud Hemeida, Khaled Elnabawi and Ahmed Fouad Selim. Mohamed Mounir is as usual the voice of Chahine singing "Sing out loud, we still can sing".
Ocidentals tend to see other cultures as exotic and bizarre. This is a lesson about Europe and Muslims, about Mourish culture in Iberia and about religious extremism and freedom of thinking. I loved it. My country would be much more poor if it had not been included in Mourish Iberia in a time when christians were in the dark age. The music is fabulous. I'm very curious about other works from Youssef Chahine but unfortunally i don't believe they will ever be in Portuguese cinemas.