Muhammad: The Messenger of God (2015) on Netflix
NR20152h 57mBiographyDramaHistory
Abraha, king of Habasha, sends an army of soldiers, horses and elephants to destroy the Kaaba in Mecca. The elephants halt and the army is destroyed; Muhammad is born a month later.
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- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.2/1013,144 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In the sixth century, a commander marches on Mecca under orders from Abraha, the king of Habasha, to destroy the Kaaba. As the force closes on the city, the elephants stop and refuse to advance, and small birds drop stones on the troops until the army is wiped out. A month later Muhammad is born, and the story follows him from birth to the age of thirteen in the pre-Islamic era known as Jahiliyyah, with the Quraysh tribe as the backdrop against which he is raised. His uncle Abu Talib is among those around him, and his face is never shown.
Cast
- Murat Şenolas Hz. Ali
- Ali Ekber Diribaşas Hz. Hamza
- Mohammad Asgarias Abu Lahab
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Muhammad: The Messenger of God (2015)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Majid Majidi pulled his earlier film The Willow Tree from the 17th NatFilm Festival over the Jyllands-Posten cartoons of Muhammad, saying the paper insulted Muslims; that controversy led him to make Muhammad: The Messenger of God.
- In February 2015 Egypt's Al-Azhar University called on Iran to ban the film as debasing the sanctity of God's messengers, and Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh condemned it as showing Muhammad in an untrue light and mocking him.
- India's Barelvi Raza Academy issued a fatwa against director Majid Majidi and composer A. R. Rahman and got the Maharashtra government to block the film's 2020 online release, with state home minister Anil Deshmukh seeking a nationwide ban.
- Muhammad's face is never shown; Majidi said hiding it makes the character more intriguing, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro compensated with lighting and camera movement, using a separate Steadicam for Muhammad's point of view.
- An enormous set of an estimated 100 hectares was built near Qom in 2011, recreating sixth-century Mecca and Medina, and a replica of the Kaaba was built in the village of Mazraeh-ye Allahyar.
- Scenes requiring elephants were shot at Bela-Bela in South Africa, and Majidi's team struggled with transporting elephants, costumes and animals and with huge crowds, with nearly 3000 extras on the site on some days.
- Most of the filming was done in secrecy with no news coverage and no journalists allowed at the locations; Majidi spoke less to his actors face to face, so they mostly dealt with his assistants.
