Raja

Doillon's excellent and surprising film describes with considerable subtlety the sexual attraction of a well to do Frenchman living in Marrakesh towards a local orphan girl. Greggory gives a carefully calibrated performance as the middle aged Pierre Louÿs-quoting lothario ('I'm abject!' he lazily declares), and Benssallem, as his not spectacularly beautiful object of fascination, poignantly expresses the disturbing nature of the contradictory emotional pulls and social and economic pressures acting upon her. What distinguishes Raja is how Doillon's nurturing of spontaneous performances, alongside a keen sensitivity to cultural differences, linguistic, social and sexual, help the film to develop from a languorous essay on amour fou to an even more interesting, humanistic analysis of the sad barriers to mutual expression and communication we erect - or fall prey to.