Synopsis
The story takes place in current times, in a small village somewhere between North Africa and the Middle East. The women fetch water from a mountaintop spring in the blazing sun. They’ve done that since the beginning of time. Leila, a young bride, urges the women to launch a love strike — no more hugs, no more sex until the men run water into the village.

Program Note
A modern fable set in a traditional Muslim village somewhere in Morocco. Women have sex at their husbands’ requests, and they suffer many miscarriages because they have to cross over a mountain in order to fetch water in the sizzling daytime heat. The film compacts women’s problems in Muslim society into an allegory of labor and sex, and it suggests civilization as a solution. Leila, who takes the lead in a ‘sex strike’ in the film, has a husband, a schoolteacher who has taught most of the residents of the village. Yearning for a civilized society, he supports Leila, but other women still have conflicts with their husbands in their homes. This ‘sex strike’ creates a great sensation in the village, but men don’t seem to change. They don’ t participate in the labor of fetching water from the well, and they don’t seek out a concrete solution. They simply believe that the only solution is to have water pipes laid in the village. In regard to this matter, Leila’s husband agrees with the other men. Blessed by development boosted by a modernized media power, women in the film have a chance to be liberated from the labor of fetching water. Although the film stares at the women’s problems in the third world with a most Westernized point of view, it’s a pleasure to see the women in the film. These women work, dance, sing, and delightfully talk. Directed by Radu MIHAILEANU, the film was nominated in the Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. [HWANG Miyojo]