AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

simon-trek If you have a fondness of belly dancers like I do me, than this is an excellent movie. This movie has a perfect presentation of belly dancing in the Middle Eastern world. To me belly dancing is more than just a dance. It is a beautiful culture. Belly dancing is glamorous, sensual and mysterious. Belly dancers where such beautiful costumes and have such beautiful and sensual movements movements. That is why belly dancers are sometimes called "The flowers of the desert". This movie is about Lilia a depressed single mother and widow with a teenage daughter. One night Lilia who one night walks into a cabaret where belly dancers perform. Lilia befriends one of the dancers. Lilia tries one a belly dance costume and the belly dancer that Lilia has befriended talks her into performing at the cabaret and Lilia becomes one of the regular belly dance performers. Lilia is also able to relieve herself of her melancholy by letting herself go. So this film shows that belly dancing can have great mental benefits as well as great physical benefits. So if you like belly dancers than I certainly recommend this movie.

Tan karhui Another female-centric movie which is somewhat Karmen Gaei meets Sirens. Karmen Gaei being a similarly African film with long sequences of song-and-dance, and Sirens being a middle-aged woman who discovers new found sexuality within her.This movie starts off somewhat languidly, and lulls you into a sleepy mood. The main protaganist, Lilia, a beautiful widow, goes about her sheltered life comfortably. Everyday she goes to the market, chats on the phone and fusses over her daughter, much to the latter's chargrin. She entombs herself with memories of her late husband together in the apartment. In one of her many quests to control her daughter, she accidentally stumbles onto a cabarat a few streets from her house. Ever so slowly, the movie merges her mundane world with the frenzy of the cabarat world. The cabarat has an irresistable charm, with its incessant drumbeats, and riots of colours that draw people like flies to the light. And that is what happens to Lilia. To the rest of us, it is a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, just like Karmen Gaei, the song-and-dance sequence goes on for far too long for non-africans. The terrible pacing, which is a blasphemy in the western world of CGI and action, snuffs out whatever interest is left of the viewer.The one good saving point of this movie is the portrayal of Tunisian society. The titanic struggle between secularism and Islam, the east and west, the young and old, conservatism and liberation, threatens to boil over at some point, but they never do. Somehow the Tunisian society resolve these issues much more elegantly than say, more fundamentalist Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia or Egypt.Watching this movie makes me feel I've just been to the modern city of Tunis to pay a visit to a boring aunt for the weekend.Rating : 5.0

tonebone the plot of this movie is a bit contrived in certain places: i find it hard to believe that a widow can morph herself into a belly dancer/mrs. robinson type in such a short timespan, especially in conservative tunisia.despite that, i'd have to say this is quite an "aphrodisiac" movie: for you guys out there who are dating "shy" women, or for you guys out there who want to rekindle some passion in your love life, have a go at watching this movie together, and then enjoy each other as the "tiger" within your woman comes out!my thanks to raja amari (a new & promising talent) for a wonderful aphrodisiac.

ekh2001 I liked this film, mostly because it was different from anything that comes out of Hollywood these days. First of all, the women actually look like normal women. I was pleasantly surprised to see older women with imperfect bodies depicted as sexy. Unlike shane k, I didn't think it was so predictable. I actually thought it was amazing how a once plain, shy, wallflower-like widow transforms into a manipulative and deceiving exotic dancer. What was most amazing was that it was not entirely implausible. The belly dancing, for her, was a way to feel things she had either never felt before or not in a long time - enchanting, desirable, alive. In the beginning, she was obsessed with her daughter because she didn't have a life of her own. Rather, she was envious of her daughter because she actually had a life. Once Lilia found something interesting on her own, she could let her daughter go. One warning, it is a little slow in the beginning. But like the dancing in the cabaret, it picks up to a rapid pace by the end. All in all, a pretty good movie.