Immaculate Conception

(UK)

Film Four/Dehlavi. Director Jamil Dehlavi; Producer Jamil Dehlavi; Screenplay Jamil Dehlavi; Camera Nic Knowland; Editor Chris Barnes; Music Richard Harvey; Art Director Mike Porter

James Wilby
Melissa Leo
Shabana Azmi
Zia Mohyeddin
James Cossins
Ronny Jhutti

An ambitious culture-clash drama set in troubled 1988 Pakistan, Immaculate Conception tries to cover too many bases to score a solid hit.

James Wilby is Alistair, a wildlife conservationist based in Karachi with Jewish-American spouse Hannah (Melissa Leo), daughter of a powerful U.S. senator. Desperate to conceive a child, the couple visit a eunuch-run shrine reputed to have a cure for infertility. In fact, the eunuchs slip them the local version of a Mickey and get teenager Kamal (Ronny Jhutti) to do the business with a semi-comatose Hannah.

Final turn of the screw is Kamal spilling the beans about what really happened when Hannah's brother (Tim Choate) hotfoots it from the States with instructions from Daddy.

Franco-Pakistani helmer Jamil Dehlavi can't be faulted for ambition or political objectivity (pic is often scathing on Pakistan's faults). But without a stronger central dramatic line, pic perpetually shifts in and out of focus, to overall mild emotional effect. Weak dialogue in several crucial scenes is a further minus.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1992. Running time: 122 MIN.

Variety is striving to present the most thorough review database. To report inaccuracies in review credits, please click here. We do not currently list below-the-line credits, although we hope to include them in the future. Please note we may not respond to every suggestion. Your assistance is appreciated.