Immaculate Conception (film)
| Immaculate Conception | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jamil Dehlavi |
| Produced by | Jamil Dehlavi |
| Written by | Jamil Dehlavi |
| Starring |
James Wilby Melissa Leo Shabana Azmi |
| Music by | Richard Harvey |
| Cinematography | Nicholas D. Knowland |
| Edited by | Chris Barnes |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Immaculate Conception is a 1992 film written and directed by British director Jamil Dehlavi with James Wilby, Melissa Leo and Shabana Azmi playing the lead roles.
The film won special jury prize at the Festival of British Cinema, Dinard.
Hannah, Jewish-American daughter of a US senator and her British lover Alistair working as an environmentalist in Pakistan, desperate for a child, visit the eunuch shrine of Gulab Shah which has a reputation for curing infertility. While Alistair is embroiled in a brief love affair with a Pakistani photographer, Hannah conceives and decides to convert to Islam coaxing Alistair also to do the same, causing a conflict with her family. Meanwhile, the eunuchs from the shrine develop an interest in the Hannah’s baby, leading to tension with clash of cultures and religious beliefs.
Kim Newman reviewing the film in Empire Online wrote, "despite trying to shoehorn oodles of secondary themes into the brew, the psychological tug-of-war between Islam and Judaism, some nasty imperialist behaviour, and the downbeat ending make this well worth a look, if for no other reason than Western audiences rarely get a chance to see anything vaguely Asian."
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Wikipedia