Details:

Kate Winslet

Said Taghmaoui

Bella Riza

Carrie Mullan

Director: Gilles MacKinnon

Date Viewed: 4/24/99

Score: +

The Review: This movie is difficult to categorize. Think of it as a Road picture (and there are occasional tidbits of humor and situational craziness) crossed with a fond but slightly hazy nostalgia of the 60's; or as a character study and vision-quest with its typical confusion and occasional awe; or as a journey to an exotic country experienced through the eyes of a pair of young siblings, one moody and the other exuberant; or simply as a period piece, 1972 in Morocco.

Having been a student in the 60's, I found it easy to relate to the trust and naivete exhibited by Kate Winslet's character as she visits Morocco. She is fleeing her London background and the father of her children, on a quest to discover what the Sufi sect can offer her. Without a similar 60's perspective, I suspect much of her quest would seem impenetrable, and her unquestioning openness in raising her two girls in the chaos and strangeness of Marrakech, and the Moroccan and Algerian back-country, would seem startling and disturbing. There is menace -- concealed in a rare nightmare, in the glance of a supporting character, in the crazy driving of a sleepy trucker, in a panicked flight and search -- but how much of this menace is retrospectively imposed by our contemporary perspective on the hazards of being a child today?

I've never been interested in visiting Northern Africa, and still am not, but the cinematography conveys both the period and the contrast between crowded city and sparse desert. The distant snow-covered Atlas Mountains provide a spectacular backdrop.

Don't worry about the title: it comes from the novel (by Esther Freud), and samples the moods and pet names the children give themselves during mutual storytelling. Good support offered by Said Taghmaoui as Winslet's lover and guide.

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