by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Independently produced in the Middle East, Forbidden Desert was distributed in the U.S. by Warner Bros. This is the story of 19th-century Swiss adventurer John Lewis Burkhardt (Rafik Shammas), who disguised himself as a Damascene Arab to better understand the strange new land which he hoped to explore. Facing certain death should his true identity be discovered, Burkhardt became the first modern white man to set eyes on the remnants of ancient Damascus. The release of this 45-minute documentary was felicitously timed to coincide with the mounting Turkish-Syrian hostilities of 1957. While the actor playing Burkhardt is an amateur, the explorer's words are spoken by the thoroughly professional Marvin Miller.
