Disenchanted with the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia (Kate Winslet) heads for Morocco with her children, six-year-old Lucy and precocious eight-year-old Bea. After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and con man Bilal, sexual gears are set in motion, and he moves in, serving as a surrogate father.
"The fusion of dream sequences and evocative landscapes makes the characters' feverish sense of living at the edge of reality contagious."
Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader
"MacKinnon draws terrific performances from all involved (Winslet bravely refusing to court our sympathies), lets character, mood and meaning take precedence over story, and assembles a great music track as a bonus. Spot on."
