What are you waiting for to leave that crowded madhouse city? Move here today, for a new life in the healthy climate of the desert.
-Zabriskie Point, film by Michelangelo Antonioni
Early film industry publicity reports claimed Antonioni would gather 10,000 extras in the desert for the filming of the lovemaking scene but this never happened. The scene was filmed with dust-covered and highly choreographed actors from The Open Theatre. The United States Department of Justice investigated whether this violated the Mann Act – which forbade the taking of women across state lines for sexual purposes – however, no sex was filmed and no state lines were crossed, given that Death Valley is in California.
What we would have done to see 10,000 naked women at Bint UmBahr. We were almost too tired at that point to care, much less to see straight ahead or to focus our eyes on anything but a half-full water skin. Zabriskie Point was Antonioni’s answer to American capitalism, in the guise of desert real estate development run amuk.
Getting our dabouka of 150 camels up the trail to Egypt was Hajj Bashir’s Sudanese answer. He provided the capital and ran the risk. He hired the drovers and bought their supplies. He paid the permit fees and the bribes. In Sudan, his discerning eye chose those camels he thought would survive the trip. In Egypt, his bluff and bluster sold those camels for the highest price.
No naked women, no Mann Act to consider, no lovemaking en route except for one or two misguided bull camels who amazingly still had juice after walking 40 miles a day. I know I didn’t- even if our camp at Bint UmBahr, Daughter of the Mother of the Sea, had somehow been shape-shifted to Death Valley, and we had found ourselves suddenly surrounded by 10,000 dust-covered vestal virgins. Blow-up!
Zabriskie Point, Death Valley