by Everett Jensen

Created on: April 06, 2010

Passion in the Desert

written and directed by Lavinia Currier

based on the short story by Honoré de Balzac

starring Ben Daniels, Michel Piccoli,  , Nadia Odeh, Auda Mohammed Badoul

Shot mostly in Jordan this exquisite film illustrates the many possible ways in which love can reveal itself.  Based on Balzac’s short story which many have deemed unfilmable, this film uses the backdrop of a magnificent desert landscape to tell the story of a man whose desperate cry is heeded by an extraordinary she-leopard who protects him from possible death and leads him to water when he has all but given up hope of finding it.

The film is set at the end of the 18th century as Napoleon has set his sights on conquering Egypt.  One of his soldiers, Augustin Robert (Daniels),  is as the film opens escorting an artist named Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis (Piccoli) who has been commissioned by Napoleon to capture as many scenes as he can on his canvas.  Jean-Michel is an old man with limited mobility and after he and Augustin have set out it becomes obvious that he is a tremendous burden and would most certainly slow  Augustin significantly.  They part with Augustin promising to return to fetch Jean-Michel who drinks his paint out of panic and eventually shoots himself in the head.  Meanwhile Augustin finds himself absolutely lost in the desert and very close to perishing for lack of water.

At his worst point Augustin truly needs a miracle in order to survive the relentless heat emanating from the surface of the sand.  He previously upset some Bedouins by stealing water and daring to touch one of their young brides.  One of them comes after him and is about  to assault him when suddenly a tremendous flash of bone and fur descends upon the man and tears his body to pieces.  This is the leopard that has appeared and whom Augustin greatly fears.  At first Augustin is exceedingly wary of the leopard to the point that he will not drink from a pool as long as she is around.  It’s not until they are sharing meat from a carcass that Augustin realizes she has no intentions of hurting him.  There is a scene where he tentatively reaches out his hand and she licks it lovingly.  From that point on an unbreakable bond develops between them.  Eventually this turns to love.

Rarely has a love scene been so electric as the one that takes place between Augustin and the leopard which he names Simoon.

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