Al-Andalus, 12th century. The philosopher, physician, and jurist Averroes attempts to unmask the political ringleaders of a conspiracy that threatens to eradicate his ideas and could cause the collapse of Andalusian civilization. While he finds himself powerless against the unstoppable advance of fundamentalist forces that corrupt everything he has fought for in his life, his disciples set in motion a plan to save his writings from being burned.
Youssef Chahine
Regarded as a pioneer of Egyptian and Arab cinema, he was born in 1926 in Alexandria and died in 2008 in Cairo. He studied at Victoria College and trained as an actor at the Pasadena Playhouse in the United States. He made his debut in 1950 with ‘Father Amin’ and, a year later, ‘Son of the Nile’ took him to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, where he returned to compete in various sections with films such as ‘The Blazing Sun'’ (1954), ‘The Land’ (1970), ‘Bonaparte in Egypt’ (1985), ‘Alexandria, Again and Forever'’ (1989), ‘Cairo As Seen by Chahine’ (1991), ‘El-Akhar’ (1999) and ‘Alexandrie... New York’ (2004), as well as being honoured with the festival’s 50th Anniversary Award for his life’s work in 1997. In 1979, he received the Special Jury Prize at the Berlinale for ‘Alexandria... Why?' and in 2002 he took part in the collective film ‘11'09''01 – September 11’, which opened Seminci after receiving the UNESCO Prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 2018, the Cannes Film Festival screened his film ‘Destiny’ (1997) in its Cannes Classics section to celebrate his legacy.
DIRECTOR
Youssef Chahine
SCREENPLAY
Youssef Chahine, Khaled Youssef
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Mohsen Nasr
EDITOR
Rashida Abdel-Salam
SOUND
Gasser Khorshed
MUSIC
Kamal el Tawil, Yehia El Mougy
PRODUCTION
Gabriel Khoury, Humbert Balsan
PRODUCTION COMPANY
MISR International Films, Films A2
CAST
Nour El Cherif, Layla Eloui, Mahmoud Hemeda, Mohamed Mounir, Hani Salama, Safeya El Emari, Khaled El Nabaoui, Fares Rahouma
