1987 German movie Bagdad Café.
Nothing is looking like what you expect with this movie. The title calls for Iraq but then we’re in the desert in the US. There’s this white woman but the movie is a lot about a black woman. It’s a drama, could be a thriller yet it is a romantic comedy. A soft, bitter situation in the middle of physical emptiness.
It is also the story of someone dropped out of nowhere, trying to fit in and make things work. I feel that. I felt that too when I watched it the first time as a kid.
The soundtrack is one song and there’s no need for more. Very few songs move me the way Calling You does. It’s so majestic and tense and gorgeous. Jevetta Steele eats it completely. That bridge, so perfect (is that Toots on the harmonica?). Those chords are the best musical expression of being slightly afraid of the future. Her voice soaring for help. It’s haunting me like nothing else.
A gem.