Arn: The Knight Templar
Short description
Arn Magnusson is born into a noble Swedish family in the twelfth century and is sent to a monastery as a child, where he is raised by monks and trained both in scholarship and in the arts of war. On returning to the world outside, he falls in love with Cecilia, a young woman from a rival family. The bond between them makes the pair the victims of feuding clans and political scheming, and Cecilia is confined to a convent while Arn is forced to travel to the Holy Land as a Knight Templar. There he takes part in the warfare between Christians and Muslims in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Peter Flinth directed this 2007 adaptation of Jan Guillou's novels about the crusader, working from a screenplay by Hans Gunnarsson. The large cast includes Joakim Nätterqvist and Sofia Helin in the leading roles, with Stellan Skarsgård, Michael Nyqvist, Mirja Turestedt and Morgan Alling among the supporting players. It was an ambitious international co-production mounted by companies from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom on a budget of about 25 million dollars. Flinth's next feature as director came many years later with Against the Ice in 2022.
The film has found a sizeable audience since its release, drawing roughly 24,000 votes on IMDb for a rating of 6.6 out of 10, while the smaller body of votes on TMDB stands at 322 and a rating of 6.3, indicating solid but not exceptional approval from viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The Grand Master of the Templar Order at the time (1177) was not Arnold of Torroja, as shown in the film, but Odo of Saint Amand.
- The film is based on the works of Swedish writer Jan Guillou about the Templar Arne Magnusson, “The Road to Jerusalem” (Vägen till Jerusalem, 1998) and “The Templar” (Tempelriddaren, 1999).
- In the final part of the film, the Templars, under the skillful command of Arne, defeat Saladin. In reality, the main role in the victory at Montgisard (November 25, 1177) was played by the forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem led by the young King Baldwin IV and Reynald de Châtillon.
- King Eric Jedvardsson was killed, according to later Swedish sources, not by Charles Sverkersson, but by the Dane Magnus Henrikson, who had claims to the Swedish throne.
- The Swedish scenes of the film were mainly shot in the province of Västergötland, while the foreign scenes were shot in Morocco and Scotland.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
