This evening at 7:00 pm, Casa Árabe in Madrid will be screening the film Los constructores de la Alhambra (The Builders of the Alhambra), followed by a meeting with its director, Isabel Fernández, and the Egyptian actor Amr Waked, who plays the role of Ibn al-Khatib.
Released in cinemas in November 2022, Isabel Fernández’s documentary delves into the lives of the creators of a unique work of art, the motives that drove them, the adventure that the project entailed and the conflicts of its protagonists, in a historical period of crisis and momentous changes.
Knowing that his besieged Kingdom of Granada was doomed to disappear due to the advance of neighbouring kingdoms, Yusuf I, the Sultan of Granada, embarked on the construction of a building that would reflect the splendour of his civilisation and defy oblivion: the palaces of the Alhambra. His vizier, Ibn al-Khatib (Amr Waked), a poet and genius ahead of his time, participates and records this colossal challenge in his chronicle. But when the sultan’s son, Muhammad V, inherits the throne and involves the vizier in the new policies of his reign, Ibn al-Khatib is torn between the ideas of his old world and the new one that is emerging. His memoirs tell the story of 14th century Granada, the swansong of Muslim Europe. Tickets can be purchased at this link.
