Madina: The Enlightened City review – a fact-filled tour of Islam's second holiest city

The Guardian

30-06-2025

Here is a tour guide of the Islamic holy city best known in the UK as Medina in Saudi Arabia, a major destination for religious tourism, second only to Mecca. It is home to Islam's first mosque, and the prophet Muhammad's final resting place. For anyone planning a visit, this documentary about the city's sacred sites is well worth a watch. Non-Muslims may find themselves reaching for their phones to look up terms and historical events.
There is an antiquated, mildly academic feel to the voiceover, like a BBC documentary from the 1970s. It begins with a brief overview of the prophet's migration from Mecca to Medina in 622AD, marking the start of the Islamic calendar. In the present day, the faces of pilgrims are a window into the significance of this spiritual journey for those with faith – but none are actually interviewed.
The main focus of the film is a tour of the city's landmarks: mostly mosques, but also a gleaming state-of-the-art Qur'an printing facility that produces 8m copies a year. Breathtaking aerial footage shows off the wonders of the sites, including the Prophet's Mosque, which has 250 incredible giant umbrellas that open to create a translucent roof over the courtyard when the temperature goes above 30C.
There is an overly informational quality to some of the film, with the narrator listing details about the car-parking facilities of one mosque and opening times of the reading room in another. But some of these facts are admittedly astounding: it takes a staff of 6,000 to keep the Prophet's Mosque spotless.
Madina: The Enlightened City is at Cardiff Odeon on 4 July, then tours