Whenever people are released from their society's constraints, there is the possibility that they will behave badly, at least according to the rules of the society they have left behind. This seems to have been particularly the case for Europeans living in colonial establishments in Africa and Asia. In this drama, based on a story by Stefan Zweig, Dr. Steiner (Andrzej Seweryn) was caught with his fingers in the till at a German hospital. Rather than prosecute him, they gave him the option of emigrating elsewhere. He chose to serve at a clinic in a remote part of Portuguese Goa. He has been on his best behavior for years, but when the beautiful wife (Fanny Ardant) of a diplomat comes to him asking for an abortion, he is tempted to ask for sexual favors in return, and his life swiftly goes out of control.
Acting
Seweryn's crumbling dignity; Ardant's devastating stillness.
Direction
Farges lets Goa’s humidity become its own character.
Director
Joël Farges
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Zweig's 1922 novella was already a critique of European moral rot; Farges relocates it to dying Portuguese colonialism for extra historical sting.
This was one of Fanny Ardant's rare French-German co-productions during her peak 90s run—she reportedly took half her usual fee to work with Seweryn.
FR
