Isabelle Eberhardt

Eberhardt is remembered mainly for her diaries, eventually translated into English by Paul Bowles. This deals with her travails in Algeria and Morocco between 1899 and her death in 1904: her marriage to a consumptive Legionnaire, her belligerent journalism, her clashes with the forces of colonialism, whether brutish (Moie) or benign (O'Toole). Primarily it's a vehicle for May, the nude space vampire in Lifeforce, here a beguiling cross-dresser when not swathed in a burnous, and looking every inch a star. But this stilted Saharan slog does her no favours. O'Toole, who must know a thing or two about deserts by now, coasts in an undemanding role.