Desert trampled upon the accepted civility of western modernity and was a cinematic anomaly in its depiction of resistance to 20th-century colonialism. For Muslims around the world, Omar Mukhtar was not just Libya’s hero, he was a symbol of pan-Arab ideals, a Muslim hero, a dogged anti-imperialist who stood up to injustice, fighting boldly and gracefully for 20 years. “It is our duty to God to defend ourselves against those who have driven us out of our homes,” Mukhtar says on screen. The epic was released just as TV viewing increased globally, with the introduction and explosion of video. However, the number of mainstream films or high-level productions that dared to narrate the level of imperialist crimes against Muslim societies or venerated Muslim leaders were few.
Hollywood villains defaulted from Soviet hardmen to brown Muslim men with towels wrapped around their heads: even the benign blockbuster Back to the Future (1985) depicted its throwaway terrorists as Muslim and Arab (coincidentally, in this case, Libyan). It only got worse during the late 1980s and 1990s with blockbuster offerings like Rambo III (1988), True Lies (1994) and Executive Decision (1998) deepening the caricature Ertugrul), created by Mehmet Bozdag, told the story of a young warrior in 13th-century Anatolia who embarks on a mission to find a permanent home for his Turkic tribe, known as the Kayi, who lived as nomads on the steppes of central Asia. There, they seek shelter from the elements, navigate food shortages during harsh winters, and battle marauding Christian Crusaders and Mongols. At the time the so-called Islamic world, as it is now, was in disarray, with empires like the Ayyubids and the Seljuks a shadow of their former selves. Ertugrul (played by Engin Altan Duzyatan), son of Suleyman Shah, pursues a dream to unite Muslims and finally secure a home for the Turkmen tribes.
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