Laila Rouass Movies

As in its past three seasons, the ribald British drama series Footballers' Wives continues to be propelled forward by the spectacular sexcapades of its leading character, the coke-sniffing, bed-hopping Tanya Turner (Zoe Lucker), who has already married two members of the Earls Park Sparks football team and has also managed to ensare several others in her well-manicured clutches. Arrested for drug possession at the end of Season Three, Tanya returns for more deviltry at the outset of Season Four, having spent the "interim" period as a supporting character on the British "women in prison" melodrama Bad Girls. Conrad Gates (Ben Price) is the new captain of the Sparks, and the latest prospect on Tanya's "must have sex with" list; he has also divorced his wife, the ruthlessly ambitious Bollywood starlet Amber (Laila Rouass). However, Conrad and Amber get back together again (maybe!) when he finds out that his baby son Troy is Amber's and not Tanya's. In other news, the Sparks' manager Roger Webb (Jesse Birdsall), has married Jackie Pascoe (Gillian Taylforth]), the mother of ex-team member Kyle Pascoe, who has degenerated into a life of crime. Later on, Roger's son Seb (Tom Swire), who also happens to play on the team, will make an entirely different type of play for his sexy stepmom. Elsewhere, second-year team member Harley Lawson (Jamie Davis) finds that he can't trust his cosmetic surgery-addicted bride Shannon (Sarah Barrand) any farther than he can throw her when she hops in the sack with teenaged hotshot player Darius Fry (Peter Ashe). And finally, new Sparks teammate Bruno Milligan (Ben Richards) ruminates over the impending end of his career, while his wife Lucy (Helen Latham), determined to emerge from behind the shadow of her famous husband, inaugurates an affair with an internet acquaintance named Giles. All this, plus a nasty charge of "team rape" in Sunny Spain as a bonus! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story that sent shock waves through India in 1992, this drama concerns Sanwari (Nandita Das), a lower-caste woman with a husband, Sohan (Raghuvir Yadav), and two children, who is raising her family in a rural village. While it's generally Sanwari's nature to mind her own business and take care of her family, when she sees a neighbor woman being mistreated by an man from the city's upper caste, Sanwari is outraged and speaks out in public about the incident. Shobha (Deepti Naval), a social worker, is impressed by Sanwari's conviction and hires her as an assistant as the Indian government begins implementing a program to give greater rights and protection to Indian women. While she's timid at first, Sanwari soon comes to value her work as a feminist activist, but as she becomes more outspoken against sexism and abuse of caste position, she earns the enmity of many powerful men in the community. First Sanwari and her family are shunned by the local leaders, and then a group of men from the town's leadership take their revenge by subjecting Sanwari first to a savage beating and then to a gang rape. Sanwari, Shobha, and Sohan refuse to be intimidated or silenced, and when the local leadership refuses to bring Sanwari's attackers to justice, they bring the crime to the attention of the national media, leading people across the country to demand justice for Sanwari -- and for women all over India. Bawandar was directed and co-scripted by Jagmohan, an Indian filmmaker who has made a number of films in the United States under the name Jag Mundhra. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat romantic drama, Francesco (Lothaire Bluteau), a cartoonist who draws an adults-only sex-and-adventure feature, finds his relatively quiet life in Messina turned upside down by the arrival of a film crew from England, who've moved into town to shoot a movie under the direction of an eccentric American filmmaker (L.M. Kit Carson). Yasmin (Laila Rouass), a beautiful actress from Pakistan, is starring in the film, and Francesco soon finds himself falling in love with her. Yasmin finds herself attracted to Francesco as well, much to the annoyance of her director. L.M. Kit Carson, who also served as executive producer on this film, is best known as a screenwriter, having worked on films as diverse as Paris, Texas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide