Arn: The Knight Templar

Arn: The Knight Templar (2007) is a Swedish historical epic directed by Peter Flinth — watch it online on iFILM. Arn, son of a Swedish nobleman, grows up inside a monastery's walls and, condemned for a forbidden love, is sent to the Holy Land as a Templar knight to serve out his penance on the battlefield.

Joakim Nätterqvist plays Arn across years of desert campaigns and Crusader politics, eventually reaching Hattin — the 1187 battle where Saladin broke the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Sofia Helin is Cecilia, the woman he left behind in Sweden, whose own story runs parallel through the film. Stellan Skarsgård and Mikael Nyqvist appear in supporting roles. The film is adapted from Jan Guillou's novel trilogy, shot on location in Morocco and Sweden with a production scale rarely attempted in Scandinavian cinema.

As medieval epics go, this one keeps its feet on the ground — more interested in the human cost of piety than in glorifying the Crusades. Stream Arn: The Knight Templar (2007) online on iFILM.