In 1990 two studios raced to make a film about the lambada, and both came out on the same day, 16 March. This is the other one. Nisa is a princess of an Amazon tribe whose land is being cleared by an American company. She goes to Los Angeles to stop it, gets a job as a maid, and the only weapon she has is a dance. The Forbidden Dance is a bad film in the way that becomes enjoyable, and Laura Harring, later of Mulholland Drive, is the reason it is remembered at all.
What Happens In Los Angeles
Nisa falls for Jason, the son of the family she works for, who is a champion ballroom dancer. His girlfriend is not pleased. A shaman from her tribe, played by cult actor Sid Haig, follows her to the city. The company’s boss, played by Richard Lynch, wants her gone. It all ends at a televised dance competition where Nisa and Jason perform the lambada on live TV and somehow that saves the rainforest. Kid Creole and the Coconuts perform the music.
Why It Keeps Turning Up
The lambada craze lasted about one summer. The film has outlasted it as a time capsule of 1990: the clothes, the hair, the environmental message delivered via hip-swinging. The rival film, Lambada, did slightly better at the box office, but this one has Harring.
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97 minutes in HD above. Free, no account.