Although about the past, The Message was ahead of its time. Made before the Iranian Revolution and 9/11, director Mustapha Akkad anticipated the coming confusion and misunderstanding around Islam in the West. Using the classical Hollywood three-act structure, The Message is an epic action film with an idealistic superhero, making it palatable for a world raised on American blockbusters. When I show it to my university students, who come from all different religious backgrounds, I expect to hear “This is so slow,” as they say about most films made before they were born, even the original Star Wars, which came out just a year later. The Message, however, led to strong discussions around religion and storytelling. Akkad is perhaps better known for launching the horror franchise, Halloween, in 1978, but in the decades since The Message was released, the horrors that have befallen the Arab and Muslim world have only made this film more relevant, particularly as no other director has convincingly made a film about Islam for a Western audience. — Alia Yunis