The creativity of Moustapha Akkad came in such movies as Lion of the Desert (1981) and The Message (1977), where he directed and showed some really creative amazing view on the history of Islam. As an Arab Muslim it was really hard for him to make it in Hollywood but no one could deny his talent as a director and a producer.
Moustapha Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1930. His passion for movies grew at an early age and this is why at the age of 19 he wanted to go to the States and follow his dream. When he left Syria his father gave him the money for the ticket and a copy of the Qura'an, telling him it was all he could manage. In the USA he studied theatre arts at UCLA and got his masters from USC. He started his professional work in TV where he did a biography on the different ethnic groups in the States and how their backgrounds affect their lives in America. NBC offered him a better salary if he chose not to put his name on the project, and this is where he learned a great lesson. That for a film maker recognition is more important than money....
The creativity of Moustapha Akkad came in such movies as Lion of the Desert (1981) and The Message (1977), where he directed and showed some really creative amazing view on the history of Islam. As an Arab Muslim it was really hard for him to make it in Hollywood but no one could deny his talent as a director and a producer.
Moustapha Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1930. His passion for movies grew at an early age and this is why at the age of 19 he wanted to go to the States and follow his dream. When he left Syria his father gave him the money for the ticket and a copy of the Qura'an, telling him it was all he could manage. In the USA he studied theatre arts at UCLA and got his masters from USC. He started his professional work in TV where he did a biography on the different ethnic groups in the States and how their backgrounds affect their lives in America. NBC offered him a better salary if he chose not to put his name on the project, and this is where he learned a great lesson. That for a film maker recognition is more important than money. In 1976 he made his first feature film, The Message, where he directed and produced; the film was about the birth of Islam starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas. The film did not score at the American box office because the face of the prophet Mohammed (the main character in the movie) did not show on the screen due to religious reasons, but it did very well world wide.
In 1978 John Carpenter came to him with the screenplay for Halloween and Akkad produced it while Carpenter directed it. The movie was a big success. In 1981 he went back to directing when he directed Anthony Quinn again in Lion of the Desert, a movie funded by Moa'amer al Qaddafi and due to his political persona the movie did not score at the box office. It was about the Libyan freedom fighter Omar Al-Mokhtar and the Libyans fight for freedom against the Italians, and was his last directorial project.
After that he went back to producing the Halloween sequels. In 1995 he decided to make a film about the life of Saladin the great Muslim leader who fought the crusaders but he was never able to get the appropriate funding. On the 9th of November 2005 he was killed in a tragic terrorist attack in Amman Jordan. As a director he was greatly affected by David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) but had his own amazing touches. He was a great story teller, but what's more amazing about him is the stories he chose to tell. He loved history and refused to direct any other genre. His mission in life was to show the west the truth about his religion. And for the Muslims he was the last hope to improve their image in the west. He was a true hero for Islam, and it's really sad that one of the last Muslim heroes, the man who gave the world the image of the birth of Islam was killed by the hands of people who call themselves Muslim freedom fighters.
