El Naser Salah el Dine / Saladin

Director Youssef Chahine uses the history of the Third Crusade (1189–1192) to promote pan-Arab unity in the wake of de-colonization and wars with Israel in the early 1960s. Upon hearing of the slaughter of Muslims in in the Holy Lands, Saladin (1138–1193), sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, launches an attack to retake Jerusalem. English, French, and German rulers respond by launching the Third Crusade, winning access to the city for Christians but losing their bid to occupy it. The film premiered in the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival in July 1963.