Reviewed - Heading South/Vers le Sud: FRENCH director Cantet does not pull any punches in Heading South (Vers le Sud), which is as thoughtful and provocative as his earlier Time Out (L'emploi du Temps), in which a middle-aged businessman concocted an elaborate scheme to conceal his newly unemployed status from his family.

Cantet's latest film deals with sex tourists in late 1970s Haiti, but this story's sexual predators do not conform to the stereotype of seedy old men. They are, in fact, well-to-do middle-aged women jealously competing for the paid sexual favours of a handsome 18-year-old beach boy named Legba (Menothy Cesar). The movie directly addresses both the nature of this exploitation and the intense sexual satisfaction it provides.

The most pragmatic of the women is Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), a Boston college lecturer in French literature on her sixth consecutive Haitian summer holiday. She approvingly quotes Françoise Sagan on the currency of sex: "When I'm old, I'll pay young people to love me because, of all things, love is the sweetest, the most alive and the most sensible. No matter what the price." The less confident Brenda (Karen Young) has divorced since she first came to Haiti with her husband, when she met Legba and finally experienced her first orgasm. Their Canadian friend, Sue (Louise Portal), is interested in another young local gigolo.

Situating the simmering drama against the corruption and intimidation of the infamous "Baby Doc" Duvalier dictatorship, Cantet's fine film features outstanding performances from Rampling and Young as the most sexually demanding - and needy - of the visiting women. It is a world apart from the soft fantasy of Shirley Valentine.