This late epic from a titan of Egyptian cinema is at once a historical melodrama, an exhilarating musical, and a political plea.
The celebrated filmmaker Youssef Chahine’s Destiny tells the life of the influential medieval philosopher Ibn Rushd (known in the West as Averroes), an advocate for tolerance who speaks out against religious extremism. Set in Córdoba in the 12th century where a secular and multicultural society flourished under Muslim rule, Destiny shows Averroes fighting for free speech, literacy, and rationalism. He strives to preserve the writings of great thinkers such as Aristotle but is targeted by powerful clerics. His followers use lively, sensuous singing and dancing as a rebuttal to the joyless austerity of the zealots. Chahine made the film at a time of rising fundamentalist extremism in Egypt, and its relevance is sadly stronger than ever. And its spectacle (Steamy romance! Raging battle scenes! Rousing song and dance!) remains just as captivating. In Arabic with English subtitles. (135 mins., 35mm)
