Destiny

Its occasional dramatic longueurs notwithstanding, Chahine's film about the 12th century Moorish philosopher Averroës is a brave, engrossing attack on Islamic fundamentalist dogma and oppression. Averroës and his followers are shown as free-thinking liberals, the Caliph (who ordered his work burnt) a mere political pawn, but secondary to the narrative itself is the glorious, stirring (and generically traditional) use of song and dance - frowned on by the philosopher's enemies - as an energising, liberating force which embodies Chahine's notion that 'thought has wings'. Common sense and sensuality merge in the intelligent script and vibrant, colourful mise en scène to often exhilarating effect.