Did you see the 2004 film “Head in the Clouds“? I did not! But if you had you would know that the protagonists face unpalatable choices in 1930s Europe. In fact I had never heard of it until told about it by a lunch companion last week who raved about it. Whether it is any good or not, I do not know but a film with Charlize Theron and Penélope Cruz in it has something going for it in any event, I thought.
Apparently the film received poor reviews and has presumably sunk without trace. A pity, as I would have liked to see it now it has been drawn to my attention.
Burying your head in the sand is an evocative euphemistic expression of a failure to acknowledge or confront a problem. Ostriches are supposed to bury their heads in the sand but do not actually do so. The theoretical behaviour attributed to them derives from Pliny the Elder who wrote that ostriches are so stupid that they imagine that when their head is hidden the viewer cannot see the rest of them either! They have no need for this ridiculous attitude as they are very fast when threatened and expert at camouflage in the right terrain and have a fearsome kick which can seriously injure and even kill.
