Queen of the Desert

Queen of the Desert is a biographical drama about Gertrude Bell, a well-educated Englishwoman who leaves the expectations of British upper-class life behind and travels to Tehran, where her uncle serves as ambassador. There she becomes absorbed in the language, landscapes and culture of the Middle East. Her growing knowledge of the region and its tribal leaders eventually makes her valuable to the British Empire as an explorer, writer, archaeologist, cartographer and political adviser during the reshaping of the Arab world after the First World War.

Werner Herzog wrote and directed the film, the sixteenth of the twenty-two features he has directed in chronological order, following Cave of Forgotten Dreams and preceding Salt and Fire. Nicole Kidman plays Bell, with James Franco as the diplomat Henry Cadogan, Robert Pattinson as T. E. Lawrence, Damian Lewis as Richard Wylie, Jay Abdo as Fattuh and Jenny Agutter as Florence Bell. The production was mounted on a budget of about 15 million US dollars and was shot in Morocco.

Its commercial return was modest: worldwide takings came to roughly 2 million dollars against that budget. On TMDB, viewers rate it 5.8 out of 10 from 313 votes, while critics give it 4.3 out of 10 from 81 reviews, a notably lower figure than the audience score.