Caravans (1978)

Summary: Mark Miller is a minor functionary in the American embassy in the capital of a middle eastern desert kingdom in 1948. He is given the job of finding Ellen Jasper, the daughter of an American senator who had married a member of the local hierarchy and has not been heard of for ten months. Miller interviews the husband, Colonel Nazrullah, who is unhelpful, so continues his search in the desert, where he meets the leader of a nomad tribe, Zulffiqar and begins to travel with them. Before long he finds that the missing woman is also with the tribe and the two become friends. Meanwhile the military are tasked with finding out whether the tribe are gun running, and the woman’s husband is leading the soldiers. Confrontation is inevitable but who will come out on top?

Content: There is no sex or nudity or even kissing, and the tribe seem to restrict their drinking to tea. There are plot strands. Miller meets with various important people in the country who seem to show us they are Arabs by wearing their dressing gowns during the day. Once in the desert and with the tribe we join them as they move from place to place with their flocks, horses donkeys and camels. The camels are particularly strong characters. The scenery is dramatic and unusual, sometimes containing very strange and obviously ancient structures. We see rifles occasionally and once a young man attempts to rape Ellen but is pulled off and punished.

A View: This film was apparently a Hollywood Iranian co-production and the film was made in Iran before the revolution. It was incredibly expensive and did not make anywhere near its production costs back. The script was so far away from Michener’s original story that apparently he sued the producers. So basically this was a poor story badly told, but as for the scenery, it is absolutely wonderful and made me want to know a lot more about the environment in which it was made. So I’m with Roger Ebert who said the film was worth watching just for the background. Have it on while doing your knitting, but don’t expect to be excited.

Here are a few other films which made the most of the environment in which they are set: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,  Apocalypto and The Last Emperor