The Favorite (1989 film)


The Favorite is a 1989 Swiss-American drama film based on the unsubstantiated story of Aimée du Buc de Rivéry that takes place at the dawn of the 19th century. It is the final film of director Jack Smight.

Premise

A young French woman named Aimee is kidnapped and forced into a sultan's harem in Turkey. Fiercely independent, she resists, but must make choices in order to survive. She begins to influence the sultan toward more fair manners of solving his conflicts, but finds herself at odds with another of his wives, who wants her son Mustafa to become the new sultan. As the years pass, she must deal with the new sultan's advances while protecting her adopted son Mahmud, and helping the Ottoman Empire against the Russians who have better weapons than they do.
The source for the story is a novel by Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark titled Sultana - La Nuit du Serail.

Cast

The film was shot in Turkey. Smight says half way through the production the producer Georges-Alain Vuille, ran out of money so a company run by Steve Friedman took over the film. Smith finished the film "and in my estimation, it turned out better than expected, but once again 'into oblivion'."