''Hideous Kinky'' is a 1998 drama directed by Scottish director

Gillies MacKinnon Gillies MacKinnon (born 8 January 1948, Glasgow) is a Scottish film director, writer and painter. He attended the Glasgow School of Art where he studied mural painting. Following this he became an art teacher and cartoonist, and about this tim ...

. Based on

Esther Freud Esther Freud (born 2 May 1963) is a British novelist. Early life and training Born in London, Freud is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and painter Lucian Freud. She is also a great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and niece of Clement Freud. ...

's semi-autobiographical 1992 novel of the same name, it follows a young

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

mother who moves from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

with her two young daughters in the early 70s. The film stars Kate Winslet and French-Moroccan actor

Saïd Taghmaoui Saïd Taghmaoui (born 19 July 1973) is a French-American actor and screenwriter. One of his major screen roles was that of Saïd in the 1995 French film ''La Haine'', directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Taghmaoui has also appeared in a number of En ...

. The soundtrack mixes original music with songs from the 60s, including tracks from

Canned Heat Canned Heat is an American band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. The group is noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists and rock music. It was founded by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob ...

, Richie Havens and

The Incredible String Band The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a Scottish psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer (musician), Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966. The band built a considerable following, esp ...

Plot

In 1972, disenchanted about the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia (Winslet) heads for

with her daughters, six-year-old Lucy and eight-year-old Bea. Living in a low-rent Marrakech hotel, the trio survive on the sale of hand-sewn dolls and money from the girls' father, a London poet who also has a child from another woman. After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and

conman A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have d ...

Bilal, sexual gears are set in motion. He eventually moves in with them and serves as a surrogate father. Julia's friend Eva urges Julia to study in Algiers with a revered Sufi master at a school of "the annihilation of the ego". In another sequence, European dandy Santoni invites Julia and the girls to his villa. As finances dwindle, Bilal's philosophy is "God will provide", although usually it is Bilal himself who provides. Sometimes he also disappears. At one point Bea contracts a

streptococcus ''Streptococcus'' is a genus of gram-positive ' (plural ) or spherical bacteria that belongs to the family Streptococcaceae, within the order Lactobacillales (lactic acid bacteria), in the phylum Bacillota. Cell division in streptococci occurs ...

infection while he is gone and nearly dies. Bilal returns only to disappear again, but he has a plan. They discover that three return tickets that suddenly appear have been bought by him with money he got from the sale of his uniform. In the end, Julia and the girls board a train back to London.

Reception

Kate Winslet's performance won praise from many reviewers. In ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'', Lisa Schwartzbaum argued that Winslet "perfectly projects that naive self-centeredness with which a Woodstock generation of young wanderers, seeking spiritual revelation, made their way to cultures as exotic as their thumbs could take them". In ''Variety'', critic Lisa Nesselson also praised the "radiant" and "sturdy" Winslet for her performance, and argued that the film was "filtered through a sober and intelligent artistic eye". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' reviewer Craig Mathieson called the film "a compelling authentic journey".

Main cast

* Kate Winslet as Julia *

as Bilal * Bella Riza as Bea * Carrie Mullan as Lucy *

Pierre Clémenti Pierre André Clémenti (28 September 1942 – 27 December 1999) was a French actor. Life and career Born in Paris to an unknown father and Rose Clémenti, a Corsican concierge whose surname he took, Clémenti had a difficult childhood and took ...

as Santoni * Sira Stampe as Eva * Abigail Cruttenden as Charlotte *

Amidou Hamidou Benmessaoud ( ar, حميدو بنمسعود; 2 August 1935 – 19 September 2013), best known as Amidou, was a Moroccan-French film, television, and stage actor. Born in Rabat, at 17 Amidou moved to Paris to attend the CNSAD. In 1968 he m ...

as Sufi Sheikh *

Michelle Fairley Michelle Fairley (born 1964–1965) is an actress from Northern Ireland. She is best known for playing Catelyn Stark in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2013). She has since appeared in the USA Network series '' Suits'' (2013), the ...

as Patricia

References

External links

* * * {{Gillies MacKinnon 1998 films 1998 drama films 1998 independent films British drama films British independent films 1990s Arabic-language films Films about sisters Films based on biographies Films set in Morocco Films set in the 1970s Films directed by Gillies MacKinnon 1990s English-language films 1998 multilingual films British multilingual films 1990s British films