The Wind on the Sand

First released in 1972, The Wind on the Sand reveals the yearnings of a group of middle-class Europeans in colonial Africa, illuminating, with acumen and grace, the trying years leading up to World War II from a new perspective.

After losing her family, young Lisa moves to Africa, where she finds the protection first of her elderly aunt Albina and then of her cousin Philip with his wife Malvina, Jews whose home is “a ‘den’ of anti-fascism for intellectuals of all nationalities.” Lisa’s destiny changes again when she is welcomed into the large mansion called Sans Souci, home of a German couple. It is a dreamy mansion shrouded in mysteries, in which another guest, the indecipherable painter Lottie, is the pivot of stories and secrets.
The devastation of the end of an era parallels a young woman’s loss of innocence.