Sarah, the wife of a theater director, decides to leave her mutt of a husband because she is tired of his morbid fantasies. It is true that Baptiste has a rather unstable troupe that rehearses horror plays in a dance hall. Sarah comes out of the wings for life, but it turns out to be as incongruous and phantasmagorical as her husband's plays. This is why she returns to him. "The real grand guignol is life. The other is the farce."
The true story of explorer, journalist and writer Isabelle Eberhardt, originally from Switzerland. She moved to Annaba in Algeria in 1897 with her mother, who preferred to live in the Algerian neighborhoods rather than the European neighborhoods that she hated, and converted to Islam. Her lifestyle shocked the French colonialists: she dressed like a man, frequented cafes and smoke shops. Fascinated by the desert, she traveled the Sahara under the identity of Si Mahmoud, she published articles and books on the world she discovered in southern Algeria, strongly criticizing the colonial authorities. Arriving in El Oued, the soldiers prevent him from continuing his journey. She disobeys and overhears officers shooting Arab prisoners. Arrested, she was accused of espionage and was expelled from Algeria. She married Slimane, a Muslim non-commissioned officer in 1901. Having become French through this marriage, she could now reside in Algeria.
