Sahara Heat

Soft pornography was supposed to have been stone-dead by 1987, but the Italians still produced the odd piece of erotica here and there, and this picture by Aldo Lado is one of the best examples. It is obvious that things have moved on from the 1970s - just the odd bit of nude flesh does no longer suffice, the required steam has to derive from the action, and here it does.

There is not much of a story: our heroine, Lea, visits her boyfriend somewhere in Morocco, exploring her sexuality along the way and getting into a bit of a muddle that eventually requires drastic action. The story works reasonably well, but this is not the kind of film where one would care much about it.

The males are mostly a bit dull, with the exception of Yves Collignon, who aims to ooze mysteriousness by putting on a stern look for most of his screen time; it has to be said though that he is clearly overdoing it. Still, his softporn rendition of a Jon Dough performance avoids the blandness we get from the other males.

The star of the show is undoubtedly Fiona Gélin. Heart-breakingly gorgeous and cute as a button, she can still act well enough to get some sensuality across. The writers overstretch credibility by letting her travel on her own in skimpy outfits in a Muslim country; even for a sexually adventurous character this goes a bit far, but Miss Gélin handles these problematic scenes quite well.