From January 17th to 31st the Cinematheque tunisienne, in partnership with the Direction Générale Des Arts Scéniques et Audiovisuels, is offering a series of screenings: “Tunisia 2011: the Time of the Documentary”.
The programme looks back at the events of January 14th 2011 and the Tunisian revolution through the lenses of film-makers. The selected films take the revolution as a starting point “to evoke a national memory which has long been denied us,” the organisers explain.
In many of the productions presented film-makers explore social aspects of post-revolutionary Tunisia. Some delve into the origins of the anger found on the margins of society, in neglected working-class areas and outlying regions. Nous sommes ici (2011) by Abdallah Yahya follows suburban rappers expressing their daily reality through music. With Maudit soit le phosphate (2012), director Sami Tlili looks at the consequences of phosphate production in south western Tunisia.
The role of women in militant struggles is also a notable theme of this selection. Mounir Baaziz’ Une vie en dents de scie (2012) paints the portrait of Halima Jouini, an activist of the Association tunisienne des femmes démocrates, who devoted her life to the fight against the violence suffered under the regimes of Bourguiba and Ben Ali.
Sources: La Presse, teKiano, Cinéma tunisien
