logo 2001

GIFFONI FILM FESTIVAL 2001 - 14.21 July

Sections & Films

IN DESERT AND WILDERNESS

Category: Edition 2001

Synopsis
When 15 year old Stas Tarkowski and 9 year old Nel Rawlinson are kidnapped by rebels fighting for the great Arab leader - the Mahdi - their fathers desperately organize a search party. But the Mahdi uprising is spreading rapidly across North Africa and the chances of finding the children seem remote. Forced to rely on themselves, Stas and Nel, together with two young African slaves, Mea and Kali, escape their captors and head south across desolate country. In their search for a way home, they must battle wild animals, thunderstorms, hunger and malaria. Their journey to freedom brings them into contact with some colorful adult mentors: Kaliopoli, a displaced Greek, guides Stas through a critical encounter with the great Mahdi and Linde, an eccentric Polish cartographer, himself lost in the jungle, offers hope when Nel comes down with malaria and all hope for her survival seems lost.

Original Title W Pustyni i w Puszczy
Italian Title Avventura nel deserto
Category Official Competition
Section Free to Fly
Tipology Feature Film
Duration 111'
Production Year 2001
Directed by Gavin Hood
Screenplay Gavin Hood
Main cast Adam Fidusiewicz, Karolina Sawka, Krzysztof Kowalewski

 regista Gavin HoodGAVIN HOOD

Gavin Hood (Johannesburg, 12 May 1963) is a South African director, screenwriter and actor.
Born in Johannesburg, he attended St. Stithians College and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law; he later studied cinema at UCLA. He started working on a series of short films commissioned by the health department of South Africa, while in 1998 he directed his first short film called The Storekeeper, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. In 1999 he made his first feature film, Verdetto bianco, of which he is also a writer and interpreter. In 2001 he directed a film in Polish called In Desert and Wilderness, based on a story by Henryk Sienkiewicz.