Badis is a small fishing village on the Mediterranean coast, a Spanish enclave on Moroccan territory. In 1974, this peninsula was populated by political prisoners of General Franco and their jailers. Badis tells of the daily life in this village, under these political conditions, through the story of Touria and Moira. Touria is married to the local schoolteacher who suspects her of infidelity and confines her to the house. She befriends Moira, a young girl whose father is a fisherman and whose Spanish mother fled the village 15 years earlier. Moira falls in love with a Spanish soldier who passes through the village every morning at daybreak, bringing water from a well on Moroccan soil. But the villagers' gossip puts an end to their idyll. Prisoners in a suffocating world, the two women attempt to flee together. Told with simplicity and great dignity-and with fine performances by the two lead actresses-this story of the struggle against isolation and obscurantism is equally relevant today. Winner of the Special Jury Award at Amiens, this first Moroccan-Spanish co-production makes magnificent use of a superb natural setting. --Marie-Pierre Macia