Reversing the Crusades: Hegemony, Orientalism, and Film Language in Youssef Chahine’s Saladin

Abstract

This chapter focuses on one of the landmarks of Arab, third world and political cinema, Youssef Chahine’s Saladin (1963)1 Sponsored in part to celebrate Nasser’s consolidation of power, it was directed by one of the leading figures in modern Egyptian cinema, whose lifetime achievement in film has been complex, critical, and resistant. It is often cited as one of the few film versions of the Crusades from the point of view of the Saracen leader, and one of the few to regard the Crusades through Arab eyes. The geographic and medieval Other, that is, seems to be filming itself. The screenplay was partly written by Naguib Mahfouz, who later won the 1988 Nobel Prize for his novels. Chahine was appointed to replace the original director, Ezzeldine Zulfiqer, who fell ill in an early stage of the planning. Given Chahine’s reputation in world cinema, it is surprising how—at least superficially—conventional Saladin turns out to be, and how much it resembles in some respects the Hollywood versions of the Crusades that it seeks to answer. I will argue that this impression is in fact a result of the film’s strategy, which is as much to enter into dialogue with Western filmic representations of the Crusades as it is to set the historical record straight. Its status as a historical film depends more on its “film” than its “historical” nature.