Shéhérazade or Scorching Sands is a 1963 French adventure film directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit and starring Anna Karina as the title character. The cast also featured Gérard Barray, António Vilar and Giuliano Gemma The film is loosely based on the One Thousand and One Nights. The film's sets and costumes were designed by the art director Georges Wakhévitch.
Contents
Plot
Baghdad in the year 809. The city is ruled by the Caliph, Haroun-al-Rashid, to whom the beautiful and spiritual Scheherazade has been promised. Ambassadors of Charlemagne arrive in Baghdad to ask the Caliph for free access to the Christian holy sites. Among these envoys from the west is the knight Renaud Villecroix, who falls in love with her. The grand vizier, enemy of the Caliph, ambushes a traveling party and takes Scheherazade prisoner, threatening to cut off her head. Renaud saves her and flees into the desert with her.
Cast
Anna Karina as Shéhérazade
Gérard Barray as Renaud de Villecroix
António Vilar as Haroun-al-Raschid
Giuliano Gemma as Didier
Marilù Tolo as Shirin
Fausto Tozzi as Barmak
Gil Vidal - Thierry
Jorge Mistral as Grand Vizir Zaccar
Fernando Rey
Joëlle LaTour as Anira
Rafael Albaicín
Karamoko Cisse
María Calvi
José Calvo
Félix Fernández
María Granada
José Manuel Martín (as J.M. Martín)
Release
The film was released in France on May 15, 1963.
It was the 46th top-grossing film of 1963 in France, where it sold 1,375,848 tickets at the box office. In Poland, it sold more than 2 million tickets, making it one of the thirteen highest-grossing foreign films in Poland as of 1968.