MOVIE · 1981
Lion of the Desert
ActionAdventureDramaRomanceWar173 min
In Libya under Italian occupation, Bedouin teacher and tribal leader Omar Mukhtar organizes a stubborn guerrilla resistance against the Regio Esercito. His fighters know the desert and keep slipping past a far better equipped army, turning raids and ambushes into a long war of endurance. As Italy sends in General Rodolfo Graziani to crush the revolt, the conflict widens from battlefield clashes to a campaign of collective punishment aimed at breaking the people who shelter the resistance. Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed lead a story that follows the pressure on both sides as Mukhtar tries to hold his cause together against an empire determined to make an example of him.
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