| Arn – The Knight Templar | |
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Theatrical poster. |
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| Directed by | Peter Flinth |
| Produced by | Waldemar Bergendahl Leif Mohlin Jan Marnell |
| Written by | Jan Guillou (novels) Hans Gunnarsson (screenplay) |
| Starring | Joakim Nätterqvist Sofia Helin Stellan Skarsgård Simon Callow Vincent Perez Bibi Andersson Michael Nyqvist Milind Soman |
| Music by | Tuomas Kantelinen |
| Cinematography | Eric Kress |
| Editing by | Olivier Bugge Coutté Anders Villadsen |
| Distributed by | Svensk Filmindustri |
| Release date(s) | 25 December 2007 |
| Running time | 139 min |
| Country | Sweden Denmark Norway Finland Germany |
| Language | Swedish English Latin Arabic French |
| Budget | SEK210,000,000 (ca. US$30,000,000) (total budget of both films) |
Arn – The Knight Templar (Swedish: Arn - Tempelriddaren) is a 2007 epic film based on Jan Guillou's trilogy about the fictional Swedish Knight Templar Arn Magnusson. The film was released in December 2007 and the sequel, Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End (Arn – Riket vid vägens slut), was released August 22, 2008. While the film is mostly in Swedish and most of the production was made in Sweden, the film is a joint production between Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Germany. With a total budget of around SEK 210 million (ca. USD 30 million) for both films, it is the most expensive production in Swedish cinema.
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The plot of the movie loosely follows the first two volumes of the trilogy.
Arn Magnusson is a son of the powerful Folkung dynasty in the mid 12th century. He grows up in a monastery belonging to the Cistercians. He is trained in archery, swordsmanship and horsemanship by a former Knight Templar who resides in the monastery. When Arn leaves the monastery and returns to his family, he is soon pulled into the struggle between the powerful families, all fighting for the crown of the young nation that is to become the Kingdom of Sweden. He helps his friend Knut Eriksson to kill the old king Karl Sverkersson. This leads to war between the two factions; Arn and his fiancée Cecilia Algotsdotter are excommunicated for premarital relations and are forced to undertake twenty years of penance, Cecilia in a convent and Arn as a Knight Templar in the Holy Land to fight against the Saracens.
While pursuing a band of thieves, Arn comes across the very enemy of all Christendom, Saladin, and saves his life. Saladin thanks Arn by warning him away from Jerusalem, because he is leading a vast army towards the city. As Saladin marches upon Jerusalem, Arn pushes forward a bold plan to intercept the Saracens in a mountain pass before they reach the city (the battle taking the place of the historical Battle of Montgisard in the novel). Compelling the Saracens to retreat, the movie ends with Arn gaining a letter discharging him from his service in the Holy Land and freeing him to return home from the Templar Grandmaster Arnold of Torroja, and Cecilia in Västergötland giving praise to God on hearing news of Arn's survival.
The film production was headed by Svensk Filmindustri in conjunction with Film i Väst, TV4 (Sweden), Danmarks Radio (Denmark), YLE (Finland), TV 2 (Norway) and Telepool (Germany). With a total budget of around US$30,000,000 for the whole production, it's the most expensive production in Scandinavian film history. SVT originally was one of the biggest sponsors of the project, but they pulled out and their role as a major sponsor was taken over by TV4.
The Swedish parts of the film are filmed mostly in the province of Västergötland, while the foreign scenes are filmed in Morocco and Scotland.
The film is mainly in Swedish, but to create a realistic feel it features the languages that would have been spoken in different countries and by different people. The monks Arn grows up around speak Latin, English, Swedish and French[1], while the scenes in the Holy Land feature English and Arabic, including quotations from the Qur'an.
| Arn - The Knight Templar (Music from the motion picture) | ||
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| Soundtrack album by Tuomas Kantelinen | ||
| Released | 2007-12-19 | |
| Length | 45:28 | |
| Label | Bonnier Music | |
| Singles from Arn - The Knight Templar soundtrack | ||
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The music for the movie was composed by Tuomas Kantelinen. Laleh also recorded the theme song for the film, entitled "Snö,". The track was released as a single in 2007 and was later placed as a track on her 2009 album Me and Simon. "Snö" peaked at #14 on the Swedish Singles Chart.