Prisoner of the Desert

A young French woman (Sandrine Bonnaire) has been captured by desert nomads. The endless peregrinations in the sun and sand have no destination, the girl is a pawn in a mysterious political game. Photographer and documentary filmmaker Depardon has conjured forth a petic film about solitude in the infinite but enclosed space of the desert.

Comment:
There are many different ways of depicting the desert. There is that of Ivens's film Une histoire de vent, in which the natural landscape of the desert is portrayed as something artificial, or there is Ouerdrago's Yaaba, which shows the desert as something familiar and perfectly natural. Here, though, the desert is enigmatic: alien rather than frightening. In pictures of breath-taking beauty we accompany the young French woman as she is taken through the mysterious landscape. Day imperceptibly turns into night, mile upon mile is covered without them ever seeming to get anywhere.
The enigma is enhanced by that the spectator's no more understanding than she herself of why she has been taken captive, where she is being taken or what people are saying to her. The questions pile up and one cannot help being captivated by the story.

JW

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Orig. titel
La captive du désert: Medverkande
Sandrine Bonnaire, Dobi Koré, Fadi Taha, Dobi Wachinké: Producent
Pascale Dauman, Jean-Luc Ormiers: Manus
Raymond Depardon: Foto
Raymond Depardon: Musik
Jean-Jacques Lemètre: Talat språk
French