Main Cast: Mohcine Barmouni, Kate Winslet, Saïd Taghmaoui, Bella Riza, Carrie Mullan, Pierre Clémenti
Release Year: 1998
Country: FR/UK
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Gillies MacKinnon directed this $5.6 million production with a screenplay by his brother, Billy MacKinnon. The film adapts the 1992 autobiographical novel by Esther Freud (Sigmund Freud's granddaughter) about hippie misadventures in North Africa in 1972, as described by a five-year-old girl. Disenchanted with the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia (Kate Winslet) heads for Morocco with her children, six-year-old Lucy (Carrie Mullan) and precocious eight-year-old Bea (Bella Riza). Living at a low-rent Marrakesh hotel, the trio survives on the sale of hand-sewn dolls and a few checks from the girls' father, a London poet who also has a child by another woman. After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and con man Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), sexual gears are set in motion, and he moves in, serving as a surrogate father. Julia's friend Eva (Sira Stampe) urges Julia to study in Algiers with a revered Sufi master at a school of "the annihilation of the ego," and in another sequence European dandy Santoni invites Julia and the girls to his villa. As finances dwindle, Julia's philosophy is "God will provide," although usually it's Bilal who provides. This film was shot October-November 1997 in Morocco, where Winslet caught a stomach bug. Back in London, she went directly into the hospital and thus missed Titanic's London premiere. The score blends North African music with British-American pop hits of the '60s. The film's title derives from a word game played by the girls. Shown at the 1998 Dinard Festival of British Cinema and the 1998 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Hideous Kinky offers a refreshingly laid-back look at life in the North African nation of Morocco. Maybe the film's tone reflects the hippy leanings of its protagonist. Perhaps it's a reaction to the overly mythological treatment the country and its most famous city, Marrakesh, have received in Beat literature and in movies such as The Sheltering Sky. Either way, the film paints a grounded portrait of Western individualism in conflict with the sometimes harsh laws of the developing world -- and with its own contradictions. Laying the foundations for her next major role (in Holy Smoke), Kate Winslet balances enlightenment-seeking self-involvement with can-do jolliness and fierce maternal instincts as the privileged young woman who drags her children off to the desert. Bella Riza and Carrie Mullan successfully project the precocious personae of kids forced to parent their own parents, while Said Taghmaoui brings rakish charm and unexpected vulnerability to the role of Winslet's dubiously employed paramour. If the conflicts between Winslet's Julia and the sometimes hostile Moroccan women she encounters seem to generate cheap humor rather than real questions about the nature of cultural imperialism, well, it helps to note Hideous Kinky is set in the 1970s. Self-fulfillment at any cost was the tenor of the times, and in the end, at least, the film refuses to hold Julia blameless for her selfishness. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Sira Stampe - Eva; Abigail Cruttenden; Ahmed Boulane; Michelle Fairley; Kevin McKidd; Mohcine Barmouni
Credit
Jon Henson - Art Director, Susie Figgis - Casting, Emmanuel Schlumberger - Co-producer, Marina Gefter - Co-producer, Annabel Karouby - Co-producer, Kate Carin - Costume Designer, Mohamed Nesrate - First Assistant Director, Stephen Wolfenden - First Assistant Director, Gillies MacKinnon - Director, Pia Di Ciaula - Editor, Simon Relph - Executive Producer, Mark Shivas - Executive Producer, John Keane - Composer (Music Score), Pierre Gompertz - Production Designer, Louise Marzaroli - Production Designer, John DeBorman - Cinematographer, Ann Scott - Producer, Bruno Charier - Sound/Sound Designer, Billy MacKinnon - Screenwriter, Nick Drake - Featured Music, Esther Freud - Book Author
In 1972, disenchanted about the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia heads for Morocco with her daughters, six-year-old Lucy and precocious eight-year-old Bea. Living in a low-rent Marrakech hotel, the trio survives on the sale of hand-sewn dolls and a few cheques from the girls' father, a London poet who also has a child from another woman.
After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and conman Bilal, sexual gears are set in motion. He eventually moves in with them and serves as a surrogate father. Julia's friend Eva urges Julia to study in Algiers with a revered Sufi master at a school of "the annihilation of the ego". In another sequence, European dandy Santoni invites Julia and the girls to his villa. As finances dwindle, Bilal's philosophy is "God will provide", although usually it is Bilal himself who provides. In the film's ending, Julia and the girls board a train back to London after Bea contracts a streptococcus infection.
Main cast
Kate Winslet ... Julia, the mother of Lucy and Bea
