The Sheltering Sky

Kit Moresby

Port Moresby

George Tunner

Mrs. Lyle

Eric Lyle

Belqassim

Mahrnia

Captain Broussard

Abdelkader (as Sotigui Kouyate)

French Immigration Officer

Smail (as Ben Smail)

Ticket Seller

Mohamed (as Afifi Mohamed)

Young Arab

Miss Ferry (as Carolyn de Fonseca)

Nun

Blind Dancer

Bus Driver (as Menouer Samiri)

Woman in Hotel du Ksar

Caravan Leader

Young Tuareg

Young Tuareg

Young Tuareg

Young Tuareg

Belqassim's Wife

Belqassim's Wife

Belqassim's Wife

Little Sidi

Narrator

Bit Part (uncredited)

According to casting director Juliet Taylor, the original three leads in this movie would have been William Hurt, Melanie Griffith and Dennis Quaid, but for budgetary constraints were replaced with John Malkovich, Debra Winger and Campbell Scott.

Nicolas Roeg wanted desperately the chance to direct this film and reportedly very disappointed when he wasn't able to.

John Malkovich's character, Port Moresby, has the same name as the capital city of Papua New Guinea.

There is a moment when Port is with Kit in her room, she is sitting and he is caressing her belly. A good deal of pubic hair is notoriously visible, but immediately follows a closer shot in which she is completely covered.

During the final sequence, when Kit is back to the Grand Hotel and she is waiting in the car, she is wearing white shoes. But just after, when she escapes and is walking in the streets, she is using brown sandals.

The crew is reflected in the mirror when Kit gets out of bed alone.

Port Moresby: You know, if Tunner didn't take such long siestas, I'd never be alone with you. I think he's in love with you.

Kit Moresby: Champagne yes, philosophy no.

Narrator: Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.