“” This film is a candy “Said the Moroccan director Mohcine Besri about Under the fig trees (under the figs)one of the four Tunisian films selected at the 75th Edition of the Cannes Festival, which takes place from May 17 to 28, 2022.
Under the fig trees Directed by Erige Sehiri, of which it is the first fictional feature filmwas presented in the section “The Directors’ Fortnight” and was treated to a long public ovation. The projection was followed by a debate with the director and some members of her team, including some of the protagonists, who are not professional actors.
Indeed, Erige Sehiri had the idea of making this feature film when she passed a casting for another film. When she had asked to fide, one of the young girls who had presented herself, if she would be free to shoot in summer, she had replied that no, since it was the era of harvests and that she worked in the fields and had also invited her to accompany her during a working day.
The director had accepted the invitation. Interested in these young agricultural workers, she had discussed with them, had asked them questions about their work, on their daily life, on their conception of life, on their relationships with men…. Very moved, she had decided to make it a film. She had also taken this opportunity to pay tribute to all these people who will work in the fields and especially to all these women who we hear from time to time in the newspapers following the road accidents of which they are victims, but which we quickly forget until the next accident.
Under the fig trees is a way of thinking of them, of knowing them a little, of having an overview of their lives, which goes beyond the framework of these trucks in which they are piled up morning and evening to go to work.
The film introduces these workers, and also these workers who work alongside them, starting with a truck in which they/they start their working day and also ends in a truck that brings them back to the end of the day.
A scene from the film Under the Fig Trees – workers and trucks.
Between these two truck trips, the director makes spectators share a day in the life of these workers. All the events take place in an orchard, between, under and on the trees, during a real harvest, where a supervisor and workers, men and women, of different ages, which will harvest figs, sort by caliber, put them in crates, pile them up in trucks …
The director therefore makes this difficult choice to stay in a limited space and limited in time. She also says that it is an eight open-air enclosure. And it is indeed a closed door between a few characters, but an eight open enclosed having for decor large fields, large trees, a blue sky and a beautiful sun, which also gives a beautiful light to the film and in colors. A brightness which contributes to the spontaneity and the freshness of the words.
Under the inquisitive eyes of the supervisor, a number of characters, mainly young people, that we will discover as you go. They barely out of adolescence and have the same problems and the same concerns as all young people around the world: friendship, love, various emotions aroused, girls’ relationships, jealousies, future projects…. We meet them, we notice the differences in characters, the jealousies, the problems of each other … Some are also beginning to murder, to enter into adult life and his problems, like this young man whose uncle retains his share of inheritance (the director has opened a parenthesis on a recurring problem in our societies, when an uncle or a brother grabs his nephew or nieces.
At one point, we see a mature man appear to come a moral lesson to one of the young girls. He had heard him speak and did not agree with his words. During the debate that followed the screening, the director revealed that this scene was neither written nor planned. Indeed, filming was done in the middle of an orchard where agricultural workers really worked. This man did not agree with words he had heard and not understanding that it was a film, had intervened to teach the girl. She had the presence of mind to answer her and the director had left the camera to turn!
Such a scene has surely contributed to the spontaneity and freshness of the film, which was also built on this basis. Indeed, a scenario was well written, but every day, the director did not give the actors a written dialogue, but explained to them what she wanted and expected them, the meaning or the trajectory she wanted to give, the relationships she wanted to see developing between the various characters, and let them alone find their own words, speak, express, interact between them…. Which made them touching and above all real. And who has surely helped to makeUnder the fig trees A candy. A sweet candy, sweet, who lets himself be tasted with pleasure and emotion.
Cannes 2022 – Director Erige Sehiri and her actors on the red carpet
In the film, we saw these young people concerned about their future, and ask questions about the outside world, the majority of them having never left their region. Moreover, by showing workers of an advanced age, the director wanted them to be a kind of mirror, which reflects the future of young women, their regions not offering them opportunities for the future, and the social elevator being, in our countries, broken for many years.
But one day, fate decided otherwise, and these young people crossed paths with Erige Sehiri. Here they are today at the Cannes Film Festival, the most important film festival in the world. A great adventure, which all the protagonists have enjoyed living (it is reflected in the film) and which may offer them new horizons and will change their destiny and their future forever!
Neïla Driss
