Samt el qusur [The Silences of the Palace] (1994) Tunisia

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111055/

Plot & Summary

Tagged as "Best film ever made in the Arab World"

Assimilated into the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, Tunisia became a French protectorate in 1881 until President Habib Bourguiba, leader of a two-year guerrilla war for independence, declared Tunisia a republic in 1957, ending the rule of the former Ottoman Beys. Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize in 1994, Tunisian director Moufid Tlatli's Silences of the Palace depicts the oppressive nature of the male-dominated palaces and the price that women servants had to pay. Required not only to cook and clean, but to serve the sexual needs of the princes, Silences shows the consequences in the lives of two strong-minded but vulnerable women: Khedija (Amel Hedhili) and her young daughter Alia (Hend Sabri).

The film opens in the 1960s. Alia (Ghalia Lacroix), is now 25 and performing as a night club singer. Though she is nominally free, she is beholden to a man who refuses to marry or have children. When she learns of the death of Prince Sidi Ali (Kamel Fazaa) she returns to the palace in which she grew up to pay a condolence call to Ali's near-blind widow (Najia Ouerghi), a visit that opens the floodgates of memories. Told in flashbacks, the film shows Alia as a pre-adolescent becoming increasingly aware of her own body and sadly, of her mother's true role in the palace. Alia is a gifted singer and the musical numbers in the film are hauntingly beautiful but nothing can hide the torment the young girl faces in trying to find out who her father is and to sort out where she belongs. The performance of Ms. Sabri is wondrous as she conveys the confusion of coming of age in a non-nurturing environment while still maintaining her charm and enchanting us with her songs.

Tlatli, in her first feature film, never shoots outside of the palace interior, conveying the sense of oppression and isolation though the servants listen on the radio to news about the growing struggle for independence. The women are strong and resilient, however, in spite of what they must face each day. Though Khedija tries to protect her daughter from the same fate she suffers, she knows that her power is limited. "If a man touches you, run away,'' she tells her, "Your place is with me in the kitchen." When Alia suggests that they both leave together, her mother can only respond "Where would we go? This is the only home I've ever known." While Tlatli bravely challenges the institutions that led to male dominance, there is a tone of resignation and acceptance in the silences that suggests the subservient role many women play in Moslem countries to this day. Silences of the Palace is a lovely film but one that left me with a sense of aching loss. (IMDB review)

Rating

7.7/10 326 votes

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Le chant des mariées (2008) [The Wedding Song] DVDRip Tunisia | France Arabic | French with English subtitles

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1264074/

Plot & Summary

Karin Albou’s Tunisia-based “The Wedding Song” could be entitled “The East Side Story,” given thematic similarities to the Broadway musical inspired by the story of Romeo and Juliet.  Albou creates a scene of adolescent best-friendship, if you will, between two sixteen-year-olds in Tunis; one Jewish, one Muslim, whose feelings about each other are to change during the German occupation of Tunisia’s capital in 1942.  While World War II forms a backdrop to the adventure, “Le Chant des mariees” is not a war story but one that centers on the relationship of two young women, each envious of what the other has.

What emerges is an entertaining, even humorous look at Tunisian-Arabic culture, and more important, a sympathetic, powerful dramatization of two girls on the cusp of adulthood who have for years enjoyed an intensely loyal friendship.

As for cultural considerations, consider the custom of Tunisian women to wait excitedly outside the room of a couple who are settling in on their wedding night.  The extended family whoop it up when the man comes out with a blood-stained section of bedding.  Among elements that offer an original quality to Albou’s drama, a scene you probably will not find in any other film, is the practice of shaving all the pubic hair from the bride a day or so before her wedding, a painful procedure that photographer Laurent Brunet fixes upon in close-up.  Full frontal nudity of women on camera?  No problem either—though the men are treated more modestly.

Muslims and Jews have lived together in Tunisia, mostly in harmony for well over a thousand years.  In the film we see one of those years, 1942, focusing on the friendship between Myriam (Lizzie Brochere), a Jewish 16-year-old who lives with her poverty-stricken mother, Tita (Karin Albou), in the same courtyard as her Muslim pal, Nour (Olympe Borval).  Myriam envies Nour as the latter is passionately in love with her future husband, Khaled (Najib Oudghiri).  Nour envies Myriam as the Jewish girl is able to attend school (which Nour cannot) and need not wear a veil in public.  When the Nazi program against the Jews of Tunis takes hold, as shown by hate-ridden broadcasts about how “global Jewry started the war” and leaflets dropped from a German plane with similar propaganda, Khaled, whose marriage depends on his finding a job, is taken in by the anti-Semitic propaganda.  He gets a job with the German occupation, and warns his fiancé to dump Myriam.  Myriam’s mother, meanwhile pushes her daughter to marry Raoul (Simon Abkarian), a much older man, a wealthy doctor whose money could allow her to pay a fine to the occupying forces for being a Jew.  Political pressures force the girls apart, belying their need to remain best friends, while Raoul faces the choice of doing some Nazi bidding voluntarily or heading off to a work camp with the poor—who cannot pay the fine.

Karin Albou polishes her feminist credentials in a tale that provides individuals with genuine complexity.  Khaled, though acting the macho man, displays more worldly traits by his willingness to marry a woman who is not a virgin.  Raoul, offered a job with the Germans that allows him to wear a suit and avoid the work camp, struggles with his conscience.  The story is favored by strong performances from both principal cast and ensemble of supporting women, all told amid deliberately desaturated colors to give the tale a strong feeling of place and time.

Rating

6.6/10 ;123 votes

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Bab'Aziz [Bab'Aziz - The Prince That Contemplated His Soul] 2005 DVDRip Iran - Arabic | Persian with English subtitles

 IMDB

Plot Summary:
Bab'Aziz - The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul is the story of a blind dervish named Bab'Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place just once every thirty years. With faith as their only guide, the two journey for days through the expansive, barren landscape. To keep Ishtar entertained, Bab'Aziz relays the ancient tale of a prince who relinquished his realm in order to remain next to a small pool in the desert, staring into its depths while contemplating his soul. As the tale of the prince unfolds, the two encounter other travelers with stories of their own--including Osman, who longs for the beautiful woman he met at the bottom of a well, and Zaid, who searches for the ravishing young woman who fled from him after being seduced by his songs. A fairytale-like story of longing and belonging, filmed in the enchanting and ever-shifting sandscapes of Tunisia and Iran.

Rating:
7.7/10

Trailer


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Asfour Stah [Boy of the Terraces] 1990 DVDRip Tunisia - Arabic/French with English subtitles

IMDB

Plot Summary:
A rare view of Arab sensuality. Winner of 3 awards. Rated R for full nudity.

A coming-of-age comedy/drama set in Tunisia. Twelve-year-old Noura is an impressionable boy who must learn to reconcile two conflicting worlds - the loving world of Moslem women and the vastly different, harsher world of men - while also dealing with his own budding sexuality.

Rating:
7.0/10

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Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

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