AllMovie

This French-German documentary explores the intrigue and culture mix of Tangier in the '40s and '50s when the city attracted the wealthy (Barbara Hutton), eccentrics (Lord David Herbert), Beat Generation poets (Allen Ginsberg), artists (Francis Bacon), writers (Tennessee Williams, Alberto Moravia), and other jetsetters. Interviews with retired restaurateurs, former spies, and writers, such as composer-novelist and long-time resident Paul Bowles, are combined with footage from newsreels. In reenactment scenes, Armin Muller-Stahl portrays a former diplomat making a nostalgic return, while Ulrich Klaus Gunther appears as Beat author William S. Burroughs. English, Spanish, French, and Arabic dialogue. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival.