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Hideous Kinky is an involved tale of spiritual discovery undertaken across
Northern Africa by young English woman Julia (Kate Winslet) in the
company of her two daughters, Bea (Bella Riza) and Lucy (Carrie Mullan).
Julia has left London, where she was deserted by her children's father, to
seek the wisdom of a Sufi sheik who she believes will help her achieve an
"annihilation of the ego" and thus access a state of being that is free
from the emotional pain she is currently experiencing.
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Julia's journey is a meandering one that extends beyond the personal to
explore the intricacies of the relationships between the contemporary West
and those societies descended from more ancient civilisations, exemplified
in this instance by the Morrocan city of Marrakesh. The misconceptions
each society holds of the other are played out in the affair between Julia
and Bilal (Said Taghmaoui). Bilal is surprised to learn that Julia, as an
English woman, has no money, while Julia has exoticised Bilal to such an
extent that she fails to recognise what her eight-year-old daughter does:
that he is a man on the run, both from the law and his own neglected
wife. While Julia feels "strangely at home" in the mountain village where
Bilal was raised, Bilal only feels the shame of centuries of tradition; he
renounces the lifestyle and history in which Julia seeks her freedom, and
declares he comes from "nothing".
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Hideous Kinky explores the themes it seeks to address with sophistication
and an even hand. This is no doubt due to the teaming of director Gillies
MacKinnon with his brother Billy MacKinnon, who furnished the screen play.
The brothers assumed similar roles in the 1995 film Small Faces. The
perspectives of Bea and Lucy, from which the film is told, are conveyed
through skillful direction. The use of head dress throughout the film
signals much more than a cultural necessity (although this cultural
imperative is rather problematically ignored in the case of Julia's
character); it is used symbolically, to represent each character's
development, and also in a critical way, to comment further upon the
limits of Western tendencies to appropriate and idealise aspects of more
ancient cultures. The character Bilal initially wears a western-style hat
which slowly disintegrates throughout the film, until the final scene
where he wears a red turban that is unwinding behind him, blazing a trail
through the air, as he races along in the back of a truck.
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An example of the critical use of head wear is the scene where Lucy creates a turban on
her head: the cloth is too long, it winds around her body, and finishes
by covering not only the top of her head, but continuing down to her chin
so that her vision is obscured, and she is unable to speak. The final
indicator that draws attention to the highly selective nature of the
relationship between the diverse cultures depicted in Hideous Kinky is
presented by the doctor who visits Bea when she is ill. In response to Julia's
dismay at the cost of the medicines she must buy he observes wryly that
the European pharmecutical companies are not very kind to Africans.
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Much is made in the glossy brochures that accompany this film's release of
the maturity of Kate Winslet's performance. It is true that this is the
first time we have seen her play an adult role, and she is convincing as
the mother of two young children, who are played with great charm by first
time actors Carrie Mullan and Bella Riza. Said Taghmaoui, who is best
known to Australian audiences for his role in La Haine (Hate), which he
co-wrote, is also very likeable as Bilal who lives the least exotic life:
a combination of back-breaking work and performing for unappreciative
tourists. The cast of actors is supported by the story's location,
filmed in and around the Medina, the walled city of Marrakesh. The
film-makers portray the attending cultural life of Northern Africa,
imparting the complexity of cultural and economic life which makes Hideous
Kinky much more than a trip to an exotic other world.
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Details
Hideous Kinky, by the Film Corporation & BBC Films 1999.
Director: Giles MacKinnon.
Screenplay: Billy MacKinnon, from a novel by Esther Freud.
Producer: Ann Scott.
Cinematography: John de Borman.
Editor: Pia di Ciaula.
Cast: Kate Winslet, Said Taghmaoui, Carrie Mullan, Bella Riza, Pierre Clementi, Amidou.
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Kirsty Leishman. "No Express to Marrakesh: 'Hideous Kinky'." M/C Reviews 25 Jan. 1999.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/kinky.html>.
Chicago style:
Kirsty Leishman, "No Express to Marrakesh: 'Hideous Kinky'," M/C Reviews 25 Jan. 1999,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/kinky.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Kirsty Leishman. (1999) No express to Marrakesh: 'Hideous kinky'. M/C Reviews 25 Jan. 1999.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/kinky.html> ([your date of access]).
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