INFO:

Based on Esther Freud's autobiographical novel, the film centres on Julia (Kate Winslet), a 25-year-old single mother with two daughters, six-year-old Lucy (Carrie Mullan) and eight-year-old Bea (Bella Riza). She's in flight from the constraints of London life and a failed relationship with the girls' father, a celebrated writer. The year is 1972, the exotic North African world and the mysteries of Sufism beckon. It is typical of the film that it begins not as the trio set out from England, or when they arrive in Morocco, but while they're trying to make the best of their first Christmas in Marrakech.