“Le Challat de Tunis”, a first feature by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, opened in cinemas on April 1st.
The film-maker based her “documenteur” (a lying documentary – or mockumentary), on a 2003 news item: “A rumour was rampant in Tunis: a man on a motorcycle, armed with a razor, was slashing the buttocks of any woman who had the misfortune to cross his path. People called him “Le Challat”, the Slasher. But was it just a local story? Or political manipulation? People either joked about him or were terrified of him. Whether or not you believed the stories, everyone was talking about them. Except that nobody had ever seen him.
“Ten years later, in the freer, post-revolution world, people felt able to talk. A young woman director decided to investigate, to unravel the mystery of The Tunis Slasher. Her weapons: humour, derision, obstinacy.”
Kaouther Ben Hania has already made several short films, including “La brèche”, “Moi, ma sœur et la chose” “Les Boutons dorés”, and a documentary “Les imams vont à l’école”, which was in the final selection of the 2011 PriMed in the reporting category.
Her latest short film “Peau de colle” has just received the Best Short Film Award at the 12th Cordoba African Film Festival.
Sources: allociné.fr, africultures.com, imdb.com
