The Sheltering Sky

The film is screened in a digitally restored print.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: John Malkovich, Debra Winger, Campbell Scott, Timothy Spall
Runtime: 138'
Year of Production: 1990
Language: English
Subtitles: Greek

When three wealthy New Yorkers set foot on the dense sands of South Africa, a few years after the end of World War II, each is eager to encounter something different there. When the journey begins, each of the three still carries with them the metropolitan air they had until recently breathed, the unwrinkled city clothes, the cultural arrogance. When the journey comes to an end, no one will be the same and no one is guaranteed to return. Clothes will have worn off, skin will have taken on the colour and dust of the steppe, eyes will show confusion and anxiety, the destination will no longer seem clear, the rift between tourist and visitor will have become violent and deep. Because nobody can be a mere observer in the desert. And no one there can escape from himself. Bernardo Bertolucci has attempted to adapt on the screen Paul Bowles' thrilling novel, necessarily bypassing some of its charming mysteries. But behind the mystical landscapes of otherworldly beauty photographed by Vittorio Storaro, the emotional music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the leisurely narration, Debra Winger and John Malkovich gorgeous in their appealing self-destruction, there is unchanged and desperate the existential adventure captured by Bowles for brave recluses and ignorant tourists alike. Loukas Katsikas