Arn Knight Templar

Title: Arn Knight Templar (15)

Year: 2007

Running Time: 130 minutes

Director: Peter Flinth

Cast: Joakim Natterqvist (Arn), Sofia Helin (Cecilia), Stellan Skarsgard (Birger Brosa) Notes: Winner of three awards. In Swedish.

Rating: 9

Thoughts:   Arn, the son of a Swedish nobleman, is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a penance for a forbidden love. Cecilia in turn is sent to a convent.

This opening premise then sets up Arn heading to Jerusalem, saving Saladin himself, before later winning a vital battle.

This is a great story, fiction merging well with fact. The lead is excellent and full of brooding menace. There is a great exploration of chivalric code, and duty, and you do feel for the characters as they have to embrace their circumstances.

It's not rammed with action, a gentle drama that just tells the story. It looks great, both scenes and costumes, and all looks very genuine.

It's actually quite refreshing for the narrative to be the most important part. The ensemble all does well, the direction is strong even if a few set plays bring in the scenes, and the end result is very pleasing.

It's a warming, solid tale.