The Sheltering Sky

In 1947, Port and Kit Moresby, an American couple, travel to North Africa in the hope that the journey will restore their marriage after ten years together. Port is a musician who has not worked in some time; Kit is weary of the travelling. Their attempts to escape the modern world and find something new in the desert place a growing strain on the relationship, and a fellow traveller, George Tunner, who joins them in Morocco and is drawn to Kit, complicates matters further.

The Sheltering Sky was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, who wrote the screenplay with Mark Peploe and made the film after The Last Emperor, his 1987 release; Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty, Besieged and The Dreamers followed later in his career. It is based on Paul Bowles's novel, and Jeremy Thomas produced. Debra Winger and John Malkovich play Kit and Port, with Campbell Scott as Tunner and supporting turns from Jill Bennett, Timothy Spall and Eric Vu-An.

The production, shot under a budget reported at 25 million dollars, returned about 2 million dollars worldwide, a small fraction of its cost. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 306 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 5.4 out of 10 from 29 reviews, so audiences rated it somewhat more favourably than critics did.