fanbaz-549-872209 The director and writer of Raja is the son of French film icon Jane Birkin. OK. The plot. Fred is loaded and lives alone in a house with two old cooks in Morocco. That is all we know about him. No friends. No family. Nothing. One day he gives a bunch of local girls a job in his garden. They all have been problem girls. Raja was a hooker because she was an orphan. Her brother is her pimp. Fred gets hot for Raja who does not get hot for Fred. Raja has a boyfriend. Raja does not speak French, which is unusual for young Moroccans. I have been. I know. And Fred speaks zero Moroccan, which is also unusual. From the state of the garden Fred has been there quite a while. That's it. Fred, by the way, does not know Raja was a hooker when he gets hot for her. This happens later. So the great day comes. His lust is satisfied and while both talk to each other in languages the other does not understand, it all goes horribly wrong. Pascal Greggory does his best to give credibility to Fred and I give him full marks for effort. But Fred is not credible. Nor is the story. I have seldom seen a film as pointless. I wonder what Jane Birkin thinks?

dt1908 Two thousand kilometers from Marrakesh of Morocco to Paris France but two different worlds that will not enable communication and bridging the gap. Sad and though Fred holds some hope, the spectator can not share this hope. Seems authentic, very good performance of the actors, I agree with the person that said that some of the figures do not seem to be actors but act themselves (the house maids). Whatever seems at the beginning to be a perversion, understood later as a desperate struggle for emotional survival and reason for existence. In this sense the swimming pool is a good metaphor. I find this film to be a refined, touchy, moving, beautiful film. One of a kind.

Nicholas Price I knew that I had seen the main actor in another movie, but was not able to place it until I looked at his resume on IMDb - Pascal Greggory - and the movie - Gabrielle. Gabrielle was a typical French affair - drawn out, painfully introspective where you wanted the characters to do something, rather than pontificate in a tedious fashion. This did not bode well for a film with the same actor. He was egotistical, arrogant and abused his position of wealth. His actions were confusing, why did he want Youseff and Raja to marry to escape the policeman from Casablanca, but yet still wanted her to sleep with him. The explanation of converting the house to a hotel - with Youseff and Raja as running it - seemed absurd. I could not understand his actions and despised the character. He was juvenile and destructive in his actions and the story offered little to no character development. I want to clarify my above comment about French cinema because there are many excellent French films, e.g. La Haine, Amelie, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, A Self-Made Hero, etc.

bernice-denison I was channel surfing (the whole four on commercial TV) and Raja was on late on SBS. At first I thought I was too tied to read the subtitles and watch the film but something hooked me. Not only was Fredrick an older man but it's the cross cultural thing. Fred was smitten with Raja and he would have taken her away from her abysmal life with her pimp boyfriend Youssef and loved her unconditionally. I didn't feel the movie was too long, if anything I wanted to know more after Fred gave all his money to Youssef to pay for his marriage to Raja. The marriage you know was never going to happen. I had never heard of Pascal Greggory before and I don't know why maybe because he's French? I think he did a fantastic job in the roll of Federick - He leaves me wanting to know more about him and his acting because even without the translation he came across as a brilliant actor.