Spain 2000, dir. Daniel Calparsoro 90 min, cast: Najwa Nimri)

One of these days I would like to string Najwa Nimri’s sex scenes together and see the body of her work along with her body. She’s nothing less than remarkable in films like Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Sex and Lucia, and Asfalto. This movie belongs to the period of Spanish productions when hip urban crime dramas emulating American pictures were thought to be the key to international distribution. Alas, producers chasing pots of money usually end up without a pot to piss in. But let’s thank movies like Salto al Vacio and Asfalto for discovering Najwa. She’s half Basque, half Jordanian. Her name in Arabic means “ecstasy.” Wow, how did her father know? (he’s the Arab in the family).

Asfalto is a drug-seal-gone-wrong kind of movie. Najwa is the girlfriend of one of the guys until she and the other one discover they have extreme heat for each other. So who gets to bed her? She can’t decide so invites both of them. Quite a good kinky scene follows. It turned the director on enough to marry her, and got the attention of Julio Medem who cast her in Lovers of the Arctic Circle (MovieWithMe.com) and Sex and Lucia (MovieWithMe.com).

She’s continued to work in many Spanish films although few have made it to the US. If you yearn for her you can sample her singing in the band Najwajean on iTunes. Her sound is not-so-good euro pop. Too bad she doesn’t sing Jordanian-Basque fusion. That could be hot.