Queen of the Desert (2015)

A chronicle of Gertrude Bell's life, a traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog (screenplay)

Stars:

Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Robert Pattinson

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nicole Kidman	...	Gertrude Bell
James Franco	...	Henry Cadogan
Robert Pattinson	...	T.E. Lawrence
Damian Lewis	...	Richard Wylie
Jay Abdo	...	Fattuh
Jenny Agutter	...	Florance Bell
David Calder	...	Hugh Bell
Christopher Fulford	...	Winston Churchill
Nick Waring	...	Sir Mark Sykes
Holly Earl	...	Florence Lascelles
Mark Lewis Jones	...	Lascelles
Beth Goddard	...	Aunt Lascelles
Michael Jenn	...	Thompson
William Ellis	...	Early of Chester
John Wark	...	Arnold Runcie

Storyline

A chronicle of Gertrude Bell's life, a traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.

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Plot Keywords:

englishwoman | bedouin | world war one | arabian desert | ottoman empire | 

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Taglines:

Based on the true story of one woman who defied an empire.

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief nudity and some thematic elements

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Germany]

Country:

Morocco USA

Language:

English Arabic Turkish

Release Date:

14 April 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kraljica pustinje

Filming Locations:

Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Benaroya Pictures,H Films,Raslan Company of America

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min 110 min (re-cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (5.1)

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Werner Herzog finished his first cut of the film only three months after filming wrapped.

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Goofs

One character says "I thought the Victoria Cross was only for fallen heroes?", to which another replies "That's right". That's in fact wrong - it is a British medal for extreme heroism in wartime, but not just those who died fighting.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sir Mark Sykes: [stadning at a map] Assuming become Ottoman Empire finally becomes defunct, Russia would get the Dardanelles, the portion closest to them, and the Italians the islands off the mainland.
Winston Churchill: And the French had no problem with that?
Charles Doughty-Wylie: The French have a problem with anything. That's their nature.

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Crazy Credits

The credits are shown over footage of sand blowing across the desert.

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Connections

References Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

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Soundtracks

Violin Concerto No 3 a la Rossi
Written by Ken Stange
Performed by Sourcerer

User Reviews

Context misunderstanding

Obviously the director of this movie does not understand the context of the middle east and he is taking this part of the world as a bulk and treating it as a whole. When in Tehran they speak Arabic, Tehran is in Iran they speak Farisi not Arabic, when in the market one guy is obviously Moroccan while the movie is narrating a middle eastern story (Amman Jordan) different dialect, and the Beddouin music always starting with Allah W Akbar which is a religious chant not necessarily specific to the middle east where you can find Christians, Kurds and a lot more ethnicity. To make long story short the director reflected his understanding of the ME based on orientalist concepts and not real facts.