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Sins in North Africa
Rating: 2 Stars
Directed by Mehdi Larbi. Photographed and edited by Ricardo. Music by Refat Asmat. Starring Christophe Palatin, Cedric Marin, Abdel Ben Romdhane, Lotti Ben Salah, Khalifa Touhami, Nabil Mahjoub, Amir Kbayr, Amis Hememi, and Tarek Gafsi.
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Lean, purposeful, well-groomed, and just a bit giddy, Christophe Palatin and Cedric Marin emerge from the international arrivals terminal at Tunis Carthage Airport, easily identifiable as tourists seeking zib tounsi (Tunisian dick). Hailing a cab, they head for Bizerte, about 40 miles north of the capital. Moments after they check into the Hôtel Nadhor, a resort along the port city's corniche, the friendly, square-jawed man who shows them to their rooms treats Palatin to a taste of what the French copains have flown south to enjoy.

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nfortunately for viewers, these Gallic bottoms are easily pleased. This is not to say that their various partners-- all seven of them, in eight scenes-- are unattractive. It's that the tourists do most of the work while les arabes mostly stand or lie there waiting for the sex to end, except when they're actively fucking. (Their culturally conditioned excuse is that if you don't get involved in foreplay, suck cock, or above all get fucked, then you're not indulging in homosexual acts, and can't be considered a fag.) The monetary transactions that would typically precede or follow such contacts are, of course, left out.

Though Palatin and Marin are sexually awake and easy on the eyes, it's fatiguing to take in their two-note repertoire over and over again. Director Mehdi Larbi introduces three-ways, and changes the settings from hotel to piney woods to rocky beach, but the template stays the same. It's too bad. Felicitous offspring of a gene pool blending Arab, Berber, Bedouin, Turkish, and European stock, North African men are tactile, sexual creatures. Larbi must surely know, as this reviewer knows from a two-year stay in Tunisia, that multifaceted gay sensualists exist in North Africa-- they're not all non-reciprocating tops. French porn maître Jean-Daniel Cadinot has showcased livelier, more versatile North African models in projects dating back to Sex Bazaar (1982).