Al-massir (1997)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Youssef Chahine

Writers:

Youssef Chahine (writer)
Khaled Youssef (writer)

Release Date:

16 October 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | History | Musical | Romance

Plot:

The story is set in the 12th century in Arab-ruled Spanish province Andalusia, where famed philosopher...

Plot Keywords:

Sect | Book Burning | Singer | Freedom | Reason

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Nour El-Sherif	...	Averroes (as Nour El Cherif)
Laila Eloui	...	Manuella
Mahmoud Hemida	...	Al Mansour, The Caliph (as Mahmoud Hemeida)
Safia El Emari	...	Averroes' Wife (as Safia El Emary)
Mohamed Mounir	...	The Bard
Khaled Nabawy	...	Nasser, The Crown Prince (as Khaled El Nabaoui)
Seif El Dine	...	The Caliph's Brother (as Seif Abdel Rahman)
Abdalla Mahmoud	...	Borhan
Ahmed Fouad Selim	...	Cheikh Riad
Magdi Idris	...	Emir of the Sect
Ahmed Moukhtar	...	Bard
Sherifa Maher	...	Manuella's Mother
Rayek Azzab	...	El Razi
Hassan El Adl	...	Gaafar
Hani Salama	...	Abdalla

Also Known As:

Destiny (USA)
El maseer (alternative transliteration)
Le destin (France)

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

France | Egypt

Language:

French | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Carcassonne, Aude, France

Company:

France 2 Cinéma

Quotes:

Caliph's brother: Thoughts have wings. No one can prevent them from flying.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Humbert Balsan, producteur rebelle (2006) (TV)

Al Massir, the Destiny of Ideas...

"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".