About this event

Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a French village blacksmith who’s just lost his wife when a crusader knight, Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), rides in and tells him he’s his father. Balian follows him to Jerusalem, a city held together by a fragile truce between its leper king Baldwin IV and the sultan Saladin, with hardliners on the Christian side looking for any excuse to break it. When the truce finally collapses, the blacksmith ends up defending the city himself. The theatrical cut of “Kingdom of Heaven” (2005) was hacked down by the studio and panned on release. The director’s cut, out later that year with roughly 45 minutes restored, completely turned its reputation around and is now regularly named among the best director’s cuts ever made. Edward Norton plays Baldwin entirely behind a silver mask, never showing his face - and it’s the performance people remember most. Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis and Brendan Gleeson round out the cast, with a script from William Monahan, who went on to win an Oscar for The Departed. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it better than Gladiator - deeper, more thoughtful, more about human motivation and less about action - while James Berardinelli of ReelViews said it transforms a compelling-yet-frustrating movie into a breathtaking epic. Monday, November 30 | 8:00PM TicTic, Phnom Penh Free entry & popcorn - arrive early for sofa, bed, or beanbag seating