Cinema
Arab
عرب
Synopsis
Without news of her companion Seif, a Palestinian fighter who disappeared in Beirut, Houria, an air hostess with an Arab airline, returns to Tunisia to find Khalil, a war photographer, the last person to have seen him. She finds him with his brother Qouraich, a wealthy landowner, holed up in an abandoned basilica with their cousin Arbia, whom Qouraich has taken in order to seize her lands. Held among them, Houria finds herself brought back to the time of Arab chivalric epics and their honour vengeances; the stable hand Mannoubi courts her and urges her to flee.
Context
The two directors adapted the play that their company had staged in 1987. Jalila Baccar plays Houria, Lamine Nahdi Qouraich, Fadhel Jaziri Khalil, Fethi Haddaoui Mannoubi, Fatma Ben Saïdane Asfour and Zahira Ben Ammar Arbia; the cinematography is by Belgacem Jelliti, the editing by Arbi Ben Ali and the music by Hamadi Ben Othman. Shot in colour and on 35 mm, ninety-eight minutes long, the film was shown at the Three Continents Festival in Nantes in 1989, in its section devoted to the Maghreb. The story brings together the fighting in Beirut and the world of the abducted heroines of the old epics.
Who it is for
A dense, political film, drawn from Tunisian theatre, for viewers ready to follow a demanding fable.
Prizes and reception
Bronze Tanit and best performance prize for Lamine Nahdi at the JCC in 1988; Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1989.
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