Saladin the Victorious

Saladin the Victorious, also known as Saladin and the Great Crusades (, ), is a 1963 Egyptian epic film directed by Youssef Chahine. It is written by Yusuf Sibai and others, based on the novel by Naguib Mahfouz. The film features an ensemble cast, It stars Ahmed Mazhar as Saladin, Salah Zulfikar as Issa El Awwam, Nadia Lutfi as Louisa de Lusignan, Omar El-Hariri, Mahmoud El-Meliguy, Leila Fawzi, Hamdi Gheiss, Ahmed Luxor, Hussein Riad, Laila Taher and Zaki Toleimat. It was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. The film was restored to its original running time of 186 minutes from the original negative by the Cineteca di Bologna and was shown at Il Cinema Ritrovato in June 2019. Saladin the Victorious is one of the Top 100 Egyptian films. Background The movie depicts the events of the Third Crusade. What happened during those events is that after Saladin reclaimed Jerusalem, the European powers led by King Richard of England, Emperor Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire and King Phillip Augustus of France joined together to reclaim it and return it to Christian hands. This resulted in the war between the Europeans and Saladin, which lasted for three years before a truce was made between Saladin and King Richard, allowing Saladin to keep the land while Christians could freely enter Jerusalem.