Queen of the Desert recreates the life and times of British colonial explorer, cartographer, writer, and eventually Foreign Office adviser, Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman), whose intimate knowledge of Bedouin culture played a key role in the re-mapping of the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. As German auteur Werner Herzog's first feature in six years, and with Kidman in the title role, it promises an overdue excavation of the 'female Lawrence of Arabia' set against the waning of colonial powers in the Middle East in the early twentieth century, shimmering deserts and opulent Persian colonial outposts. Unfortunately, Queen of the Desert disappoints on all fronts: Bedouin culture is kept romantically at arms length, Britain's role in partitioning the Ottoman Empire is reduced to a comedy of manners, and Bell's fascination with the region remains opaque. Worst of all, her adventures are as plodding as a slow camel ride through the desert.