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Selahattin Eyyubi (film)

Selahattin Eyyubi

Movie · 1970 · 3 people

Türkiye and Iran co-produced Selahattin Eyyubi (Saladin), a historical adventure from 1970. Süreyya Duru directed, Bülent Oran wrote the script and İrfan Ünal produced it. Set in the era of the Crusades within a biographical frame, it is filed under history, war and epic, and was made in Turkish and Persian. Akün Film is the production company and Murat Film handled distribution.

The story covers the Christian West's attack on Jerusalem and Saladin's defence of it. The Crusaders, who believe that taking the city will make them rich and win them paradise, set out under Richard the Lionheart. Saladin does not find the support he hoped for from the Muslim emirs, while the Crusader armies close in on the city through massacres. After wearing the invaders down for a long time with hit-and-run tactics, he defeats them in a great battle and keeps Jerusalem safe.

Cüneyt Arkın plays Saladin, Orhan Günşiray plays Richard the Lionheart and Cihangir Gaffari plays the knight Leopold; the cast also has Katayoun Amirebrahimi, Leman Öztürk as the lady-in-waiting Gloria, and Reşit Çıldam as Sir Thomas. As was usual in Yeşilçam, many voices were dubbed, by artists such as Nevin Akkaya and Sadettin Erbil. Orhan Kapkı was director of photography, and it was shot on 35 mm.

DirectorSüreyya Duru
Production companyAkün Film

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Cast

Cihangir Gaffari Actor · 86 years old Cüneyt Arkın Cüneyt Arkın Actor · died at 84 Katayoun Amirebrahimi Katayoun Amirebrahimi Actor · born 1939

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Through different eyes

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

Seeing Cüneyt Arkın as Saladin is a familiar joy for a generation raised on historical heroes. Arkın's dignified bearing is enough to carry the weight of a commander defending Jerusalem, and Orhan Günşiray makes a fitting opponent as Richard the Lionheart. Bülent Oran's script follows the well-worn path of the old epics, where good and evil are clearly drawn. Hearing voices like Nevin Akkaya and Sadettin Erbil in the dubbing is a nostalgia of its own. Its means may look modest by today's standards, but it is a film with conviction at its heart.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Set in the era of the Crusades, the film reflects an interesting cultural collaboration of its time: a Turkish-Iranian co-production made in Turkish and Persian. Its reading of history, however, is fairly one-dimensional. The Crusaders appear as massacring invaders driven by dreams of wealth and paradise, while the Muslim side is told almost entirely through Saladin's personality. Details such as the emirs withholding the support he hoped for open a door to complexity, yet the film chooses to build a heroic epic rather than examine a period. It is a valuable example of how the history films of the seventies looked at the past, but it should not be watched as a history lesson.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

An enemy worn down by hit-and-run tactics, then a big pitched battle: Saladin delivers what it promises to fans of battle scenes. Cüneyt Arkın's energy carries the film. Just remember it is from 1970; the battles are nowhere near today's scale, and the villains are pretty one-note. For old-school adventure fun, it is still entertaining.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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