French director Raymond Depardon's Untouched by the West, is a fable-like film set in the Sahara. The story, told in voice-over by an unseen, French-speaking narrator, is of a fearless North African tribesman Alifa (played by Ali Hamit, a desert hunter with no prior acting experience) around the early part of the last century, and how he avoided contact with the white man.

Rescued from death as a boy, he moves between different tribes before becoming a desert guide for a group of rebels.

Shot in black-and-white, this is a visually spare film featuring empty landscapes of sanddunes, sand storms, and unco-operative camels. Although tribesmen chatter away to each, there are no subtitles, only the narrator describing, poetically, events as they happen.

With its loose narrative and still, photographic quality it may not appeal to everyone. However, it has a certain mythical, mysterious quality that is rare.