"(This) exotic film...has something of the wit, cruelty and ambiguity of the Arabian Nights.... (It) starts off with a young teacher arriving to take over a village school isolated in the shimmering desert... Legendary figures materialize out of wells and the desert itself, groups of children hurry through a labyrinth of underground corridors, the teacher is whisked away to a mysterious rendezvous and never returns... Nothing is really explained; Khemir merely shows how legend, tradition and fate hang heavily over this community, and does it through a richly expressive visual style aided by superb color. Especially notable is the way the protagonists are always placed against sun-scorched landscapes in which nothing is quite what it seems, like the marvelous moment when everyone gathers round a ship mysteriously washed up in the desert." John Gillett, London Film Festival