Part of the official selection of the 54th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, whose 75th edition will be held from May 17 to 28, 2022, was unveiled this Tuesday during a press conference broadcast on the Internet.
“” The fortnight demonstrates his desire to highlight the next generation of international cinema since eighteen filmmakers out of the twenty-four selected sign their first feature film. The selection turns out to be almost joint since we count eleven directors », We read on the fifteen site.
Two Tunisian films, two first feature films of fictions, Under the fig trees/under the figsfrom Erige Sehiri and Ashkalfrom Youssef Chebbi, were part of this selection.
Under the fig trees/under the figs Directed by Erige Sehiri, with in the main roles Fide Fdhili, Feten Fdhili, Ameni Fdhili, Samar Sifi, Leila Ouhebi, Hneya Ben Elhedi Sbahi, Gaith Mendassi, Abdelhak Mrabti, Fedi Ben Achour and Firas Amri.
SYNOPSIS Melek and her friends work in the orchards during the summer to pay for their studies, prepare for their wedding or help their families. Between the fig trees, under the gaze of older workers, and young men, they develop new feelings, flirt, try to understand each other, reveal themselves and project themselves, at the threshold of an adult life that will remain prohibited.
The selection committee thus presented the film: ” As its title suggests, Erige Sehiri’s first feature film takes place in a figure of fig trees one afternoon of harvests revealing the liberated and unconventional words of a rural Tunisia in full evolution. A film as much carried by the rigor of its device as by the force and the grace of its interpreters ».
Erige Sehiri is a Tunisian director. In 2012, she made a short documentary My father’s facebookthrough which she tries to meet her father, whose addiction to Facebook after the 2011 revolution removed her from everyone, including her family. In 2018, she produced two short documentary films The tear on the Libyans living in Tunisia since 2011 and Student On the daily life of sub -Saharan students installed and Tunisia. The normal route (2018), his first documentary feature, is the theme of Tunisian railway workers, reflecting their daily fight against the failures of the national railways. Erige Sehiri is also a producer and manager of the production company Henia, where she develops films of authors like the film Disqualified (2020) by Hamza Ouni.
Ashkal by Youssef Chebbi, with in the main roles Fatma OssaiFi, Mohamed Houcine Grayaa, Hichem Riahi, Nabil Trabelsi, Bahri Rahali and Rami Harrabi.
Synopsis Tunisia, in the gardens of Carthage, a new district created by the Old Regime but whose construction was suddenly stopped at the start of the revolution, the body of a goalkeeper is found calcined in the middle of a site. Batal, a fifty -year -old cop is in charge of the investigation, he is assisted by his young niece, Fatma, a thirty -year -old woman. While the sites are gradually resuming, the investigators start by questioning the workers of the neighboring sites but are far from imagining what is really waiting for them in this case …
The film was thus presented by the selection committee: ” A fascinating first feature film, both by its plastic staging and by its religious and political evocations, the director places this metaphysical thriller in the tumult and the decline of post -revolutionary Tunisia. Of great aesthetic power, the film also reveals a great actress in the making. »»
Youssef Chebbi was born in Tunisia in 1984. After studying arts, he carried out two short films, North And The depthswhich were selected at different international festivals. In 2012, he co -managed Babylon, Documentary feature film which tells the life and death of a refugee camp on the Tunisian-Libyan border. Ashkal is his first fictional feature.
The film will be distributed in Tunisia by Hakka Distribution.
From 1977 to 2019, Tunisian cinema was, several times, present in the category of feature films of the Directors’ Fortnight: Hyena sun from Ridha Behi, Aziza of Abdellatif Ben Ammar, The angels by Ridha El Behi, Halfaouine from Fédé Boughedir, Diamond dust by Fadhel Jaibi and Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud, Bezness de Nouri Bouzid, Fatma by Khaled Ghorbal, My son by Mohamed Ben Attia and Tlamess of Alaeddine Slim.
Erige Sehiri is the second Tunisian filmmaker to join the selection of the Directors’ Fortnight, after Moufida Tlatli in 1994 with her film The Silences of the Palace.
Neïla Driss
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