Mustafa Al-Akkad

From TheHeroesWiki

Mustafa Akkad was a Syrian film producer and director, best known for directing The Message: The story of Islam and Lion of the Desert. He presents an example of an artist sincerely devoted to the causes of his Islamic nation and keen on presenting the true historical picture of Islam and Muslims through films.

1 Early life and career
2 Unfinished dreams
3 Death
4 Sources and some external links
5 This page in other languages

Early life and career

Born in Aleppo, Syria. In 1935, his father, gave him $200 and a copy of the Quran before he left for the United States to study film direction and production at the University of California at Los Angeles. Al-Akkad spent a further three years studying for a Master's degree at the University of Southern California (USC), where he met the legendary director Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah became Mustafa's mentor in Hollywood and hired him as a consultant for a film about the Algerian revolution that never made it to the big screen, but he continued to encourage him until he found a job as a producer.

In 1976, he produced and directed Mohammad, Messenger of God (released as The Message in 1977 in the United States), starring Anthony Quinn. Al-Akkad faced resistance from Hollywood to making a film about the origins of Islam and had to go outside the United States to raise the production money for the film.

While creating Muhammad, Messenger of God, Al-Akkad consulted Islamic clerics and tried to be respectful toward Islam and its views on portraying Muhammad. He saw the film as a way to bridge the gap between the Western and Islamic world, stating in a 1976 interview: "I did the film because it is a personal thing for me. Besides its production values as a film, it has its story, its intrigue, its drama. Beside all this I think there was something personal, being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it's so little known about it which surprised me. I thought I should tell the story that will bring this bridge, this gap to the west."

The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 for Best Music, Original Score for the music by Maurice Jarre. The movie was so successful that it was translated into 12 languages.

In 1980 Mustafa directed and produced his next big project, Lion of the Desert, starring Anthony Quinn , Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, and John Gielgud. It was about the real-life Lybian leader Omar Al-Mukhtar , who fought Mussolini's Italian troops in the deserts of Libya.

Making such films gave Al-Akkad a huge popularity and respect among Muslim audience around the world. They finally saw an artist who represent their causes through films which meet with the Islamic criterea of arts.

The main problem that faced Mustafa is the lack of funding to finance his films, which forced him to make a series of commerecially horror movies in order to help finance his future projects.

Unfinished dreams

Al-Akkad was in the process of producing a $80 million movie about Saladin and the Crusades, for which he already had the script, that would be filmed in Jordan. Speaking of the film, he said: "Saladin exactly portrays Islam. Right now, Islam is portrayed as a terrorist religion. Because a few terrorists are Muslims, the whole religion has that image. If there ever was a religious war full of terror, it was the Crusades. But you can't blame Christianity because a few adventurers did this. That's my message."

Death

Al-Akkad, and his 34-year-old daughter Rima , were killed in the 2005 Amman bombings which were committed by a group of terrorists. They were both in the lobby at one of the hotels there. His daughter died instantly, and Akkad died of his injuries two days later in a hospital. Akkad is survived by three sons.

Sons include Tarek (his oldest) and Malek who is also a director, we hope that he will carry his fathre's message of producing high quality Islamic movies.