Lion of the Desert - Mukhtar captured

Scene from the award-winning film Lion of the Desert (1981) showing Omar Mukhtar being captured by Italian indigenous Libyan colonial military forces and the Blackshirts (Camicie Nere, CCNN) of the MVSN, the militia of the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF). This is an accurate depiction of events as Mukhtar was captured by a an indigenous Libyan colonial soldier.

The film is about the rebellion of the Senussi Order and its supporters who were led by guerilla rebel leader Omar Mukhtar in the cause of Libyan independence from Italian colonial rule; and Italy's response to the rebellion. It shows how the rebellion was crushed during the Pacification of Libya by Italian military forces commanded by Rodolfo Graziani.

While there has been strong praise of this film there also have been strong criticisms of it. It has been accused of romantically idealizing the Senussi rebels in a propagandistic way as blameless indigenous movement fighting for freedom. It also neglects to mention the aftermath where Italy sought to improve relations with Libya's indigenous peoples by offering literate indigenous people a special citizenship that although it was limited to be usable only in Libya, allowed indigenous Libyans to enter into domestic politics and non-colonial military units.

In spite of these criticisms, the film actually does a good job of showing both the Italian and Senussi rebel perspectives of the time. In an iconic scene, after Mukhtar is arrested he has been taken to see Graziani. When Mukhtar says that he has every right to defend his people against occupiers, Graziani responds by showing Mukhtar an ancient coin produced in Libya showing the head of Julius Caesar on it. Graziani says to Mukhtar that Italy was forced out of Libya and that Italy is simply returning to Libya, and thus Italy has a better claim to Libya than other European countries' claims to African colonies. What Graziani indicates is that Italy has every right to possess Libya and that Mukhtar as an Arab is a member of one of several nations that took over Libya after Roman control in Libya was lost. This shows the Italian irredentist conception of the Fourth Shore long held by certain Italian nationalists since the days of the Risorgimento, that claimed that Italy needed to possess Libya to help secure itself in the Mediterranean Sea just as ancient Rome had done. Mukhtar responds that Graziani's conclusion is incomplete, saying that there are ancient Phoenician coins and other coins all over Libya that predate Roman control, and that times change but that it is his duty to defend his people.

To anyone interested in this film, I encourage them to watch it as it is a visually well-done film and overall was very historically accurate with the visuals; however take it with a strong grain of salt, the Senussi rebels were accused of committing serious war crimes just as the Italian military forces were.



Note: Please maintain civil discussion on this. Please do not post comments making accusations against either of the sides, if such comments are posted I will hide those posts and if the problem continues I will shut down the comment section if needed. I have uploaded this to simply display a photo from a film depicting historical events, I am not interested in having any acrimonious debate debate on the topics addressed in the film or here.