French writer/director Tony Gatlif's 2004 Exils (Exiles) will receive more notice in the U.S. since it pairs noteworthy international stars Lubna Azabal (Paradise Now) with Romain Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) as lovers sojourning from Paris to Algeria. Gatlif received previous international notoriety for the project by winning the Best Director Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Exiles follows a traditional self-discovery road movie structure that is enhanced by spirited musical sequences and interesting travelogue. In fact, the musical score and cultural exposure are the primary reasons to watch the film--now available on DVD from Home Vision Entertainment. The score tastes the Mediterranean region, varying from electronic vibes with a touch of the Middle East, to flamenco, to a frenetic Sufi dance rhythms. To Western eyes the mystical whirling dervish dance looks like what you might expect from entranced Pentecostal worshipers in a heavy metal mosh pit. Gatlif certainly ends the film with a bang.

The opening is nearly as mesmerizing. As Delphine Mantoulet's musical score builds, the camera lingers on the scars and moles of a golden skinned man before tracking backwards to reveal naked Zano (Duris) gazing wistfully from his apartment window over a Parisian neighborhood. The camera then pans to his nude lover Naima (Azabal), and he proposes that the two undertake a pilgrimage to his ancestral home in Algeria. Without sufficient funding, the trip relies on faith and their ability to sneak onto trains, trucks, and boats. It also takes the kindness of many strangers.

Although the two lovers willingly bare their bodies with occasional full frontal nudity, Gatlif's script reveals relatively little of their souls. The camera hints at potential intimacy, but it fails to develop the characters into flesh and blood humans to really care about. Not even Zano's big crying scene resonates—we just don't know him that well.

It's not that Gatlif doesn't try to humanize his lead actors. Zano attempts to define his character uniquely—he inexplicably walls up his violin and house keys in a wall, exposes his heavily scarred ankle, loses a shoe to thieving gypsies, romantically celebrates Naima's birthday with champagne, and gets jealous of his lover's flirtatious flamenco dancing. Naimo is sketched more vaguely, especially illustrated by a scar that she flatly refuses to talk about. She lives more on the surface than her partner and tries to bury her insecurities with activity and sex: "I want your dick. I want your dick inside me," she tells her lover more than once.

Gatlif attempts to contrast the two characters journeys when they reach Algiers, but both are dealt with only at a superficial level. Zano is truly seeking his roots and does seem at home there while Naima remains clearly uncomfortable and remarks that she is a “stranger" no matter where she goes. A Sufi mystic "reads" Naima, telling her that she knows what caused her scar and how she must seek her family, but that's as deep as it goes. Let the dancing begin!

While the camera holds back from letting us inside its two characters, it works well as cultural information and travelogue. No woman traveling inside Algiers or anywhere in Muslim society should wear the kind of clothing that Naima naturally dresses in; otherwise, she would be certain to suffer the same scolding that she receives from a traditional Muslim woman. We also see hands on demonstrations of community eating in Muslim society, and then there's that fascinating 10-minute demonstration of extreme Sufi dancing that dramatically terminates the film.

Although the generic road movie plot packs no real emotional punch, Exiles remains worth checking out for cultural illumination and for its striking musical score.

.