In a true twist of irony, Gadhafi, who killed Libyan cinema with years of corruption and censorship, saved the production. Yet in the background of all of this, “The Message” and “The Lion of the Desert” still loomed. After the success of “Lion of the Desert,” Gadhafi’s regime bankrolled films with similar themes, but they all flopped. No other Libyan films to date have fared much better, either inside or outside the country. The vision of Libya in “The Lion of the Desert,” despite its grim reality, is the one with which we are most comfortable.
