Press Interpreter

04/08/05 -- The Egyptian actor Khaled El Nabaoui confirmed that the film, the production of which is currently taking place in Hollywood, about the period of the Crusades between the Muslims and the Christians, will justify the superiority of the West over the Arab and Islamic worlds, but it will not endeaver to instill the old rigid stereotypes known about them, as some fear.

El Nabaoui, who will play the role of a Muslim man in the film Kingdom of Heaven, which Ridley Scott is directing and which is set to appear next May / Ayar, said that the timing is good and that it will allow the building of dialogue and understanding between the religions, rather than the opposite, and indicated that the film will not concern war except with regards to dialogue, peace, and the attempt to see the truth.

El Nabaoui also acknowledged that some Arabs dread a film about the Crusades and that any production by an American company will be biased, but added that these fears are misplaced.

He assured that the director Scott and author of the screenplay, William Monahan, took great pains to make an objective and balanced screenplay.

He characterized the film Kingdom of Heaven in his estimation as one of the greatest films that will come out this summer, and that its budget would reach something like 130 million dollars.

Religious and academic personalities fear that a film may give impetus to "crusades," this being the term once employed by the American president George Bush to describe the war against what he calls "terrorism," the concept of the clash of civilizations between the East and the West.

These people also say that the film could enflame feelings of aggression against Islam in the West, and that Scott will embolden the West against the Islamic world, since some depict the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as a part of the war against Islam.

El Nabaoui is one of two Arabic actors playing principle roles in the film Kingdom of Heaven, which takes place during the Third Crusade, and whose production takes place in Morocco and Spain.

The Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud will be playing the role of the Islamic leader Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi* who snatched al-Quds** from the hands of the Crusaders in 1187, and Liam Neeson and Orlando Bloom play the part of two of the leaders of the Crusade.

Last month, a historian threatened to raise a lawsuit against the company 20th Century FOX for the making of the film, drawing attention to the violation of intellectual property in the film, saying that it copied portions from a book on the Crusades which he wrote in 2001. The company refuted his allegations.

* Known to the West as Saladin

** ie. Jerusalem

[Full Article]

Source: Reuters

--Translated by C.G. Häberl

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http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5B2C8418-FF3B-4565-8CBC-4A07BF23C590.htm