Whatever Lola Wants

This French-Canadian production opens in the classical waters of romantic comedy but soon proves to have many more aspects to it. Lola (Laura Ramsey) is an American who wants to become a professional dancer, but through various Egyptian acquaintances she ends up in Cairo, searching for both love and sublime dancing skills.

Stylistically, Whatever Lola Wants is quite different from Nabil Ayouch’s previous film Ali Zaoua (2000), but the Arab setting nevertheless allows for some sharp cultural analysis. Oriental belly dancing becomes a catalyst for the film’s thematic and symbolic issues, and thus Ayouch can offer up a number of seductive dancing scenes. The body’s mastery of complicated rhythms is actually the key to the characters’ inner development and the realisation of their potential as individuals. lab