The Sahara Is Burning
1961 film
The Sahara Is Burning (French: Le Sahara brûle) is a 1961 French adventure film directed by Michel Gast and starring Paul Guers, Jean Servais and Magali Noël. It is based on a novel of the same title by Gilles Perrault. It was made at the Boulogne Studios in Paris and on location took place in the desert outside Hassi Messaoud in Algeria. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Sydney Bettex and René Moulaert.
Synopsis
The young engineer Lucas Rimbaud is sent to the Sahara Desert to investigate whether the drilling for petroleum should continue or the project brought to a halt. Subsequently, a massive fire breaks out in the facility.
Cast
Paul Guers as Lucas Rimbaud
Jean Servais as Wagner
Magali Noël as Lénq
Jean Daurand as Bouthier
Jess Hahn as Jeff Gordon
Jean-Marie Amato as Duval
Georges Aminel as Ahmed
Harald Wolff as Peter
Robert Porte as Pénélope
Pierre Doris as Joubert
Marcel Bozzuffi as Gomez
Guy Mairesse as Hans
René-Jean Chauffard as Paulin
References
Bibliography
Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
Rège, Philippe.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Sahara Is Burning” is 1961 film. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sahara, Burning and film, not as a finished interpretation.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3226857. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Sahara Is Burning” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.