After running smack into the bargain-tour crowd in Djerba, the newly arrived crew had to deal with the Franco Zeffirelli television production of Jesus of Nazareth (1977), which was also lodged in Tozeur. “It was a twelve-hour miniseries,” Kurtz says. “And they had used up all the local technicians, all of the plaster and rental cars—and all of the hotel space. The big hotel was closed due to remodeling, so people had to double and triple up, and stay in fourth-rate hotels. That was okay for two weeks. We could survive that. But if it had been two or three months, we would have had a riot on
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