GohaDirected by Jacques Baratier in 1958, with in the main roles Omar Sharif (Goha), Zina Bouzaïane (Fulla), Lauro Gazzolo (Taj’el Ouloum), Claudia Cardinale (Amina, La Servante de Fulla), Hassiba Rochdi (La Aunt de Fulla), Fatma Guedicha (Anissa) (Farida) was the first Tunisian film according to independence.
In Tunisia, a decree dated May 31, 1956, had established a State Secretariat for Information in charge of all press issues, radiodiffusion, television and cinema. In a letter dated August 24, 1956, the Secretary of State for Information announced to the director that “The Tunisian production company currently underway under the aegis of the information secretariat will participate as producer for a sum of 15 million in the financing of the film».
At that time, the Tunisian film industry was at its first stammerings; She only owned studios embryos and not the slightest cinematographic laboratory. Officially created in 1957 under the name of “Tunisian public limited company for production and film expansion” (SATPEC), this mixed economy company launched laboriously to set up at the end of 1958, with the mission of implanting a film industry in Tunisia. Goha Will be the first “Tunisian” feature film in the history of cinema.
Goha is therefore in reality a Franco-Tunisian co-production, but the director had offered the film to Tunisia, and it was under this flag that he had also been selected in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival where he had won the Prize the first look – a certain look.
The film had been shot in two versions, one in French and the other in Arabic. This means that all the scenes had been shot twice, once in each language. According to his daughter, Jacques Baratier had made this choice as a sign of equality and friendship.
Two future major stars of world cinema will be revealed in Goha: Omar Sharif in the role of Goha and Claudia Cardinale, of which it was the first film, in that of Amina.
It was in 1954 that the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine discovered Omar Sharif and gave him his first role in the film Heaven which had subsequently been selected at the Cannes Film Festival. And it is in a magazine covering the festival that Jacques Baratier will see the photograph of this young actor of 22 years. He will meet him and convince him to play the role of Goha, yet so far from his own personality. Gohawill be the 9th role in the cinema of Omar Sharif.
Dated August 4, 1956, the Omar Sharif contract specified that the actor was initiated for “thirteen weeks, with possible extension”, for a total remuneration of a million francs, staggered in five payments (ancient francs of course!).
Hassiba Rochdi and Claudia Cardinale in the film “Goha”
The shooting had started on March 14, 1957 and lasted 15 weeks, in Hammamet, Dar Chaabane El Fehri, Tunis, Ras El Djebel, Djerba, Kairouan and Sidi Bou Saïd.
A young Tunisian figurative still remembers filming and even told his memories on Facebook: “(…) The memory of the film which was partly turned to Dar Chaabane El Fehry and where I was engaged, without my parents, as not part of my parents for one day, among so many young people of my age, in scenes that we turned repeatedly all day long (….). The most impressive scene in this film where the Chaabanais will meet the most was shot in place of the activist who was once called Houmet Boubkir named after the Marabout Sidi Boubker whose mausoleum is clearly visible in the film (…). A cinecittà: this was Dar Chaabane El Fehry during filming: a celebration city where the joy of young people with that of the youngest, all enchanted to discover the magical world of cinema, especially at a time when the country had just come out of the colonial yoke “.
It was Mohamed Jamoussi who had interpreted the songs of the film Goha .
Mohamed Jamoussi
The first of Goha In Tunisia had taken place on April 15, 1958 at the Le Paris cinema in Tunis. The film then released in France on May 6, 1959.
The negatives disappeared for decades, but ended up being found in a Gammarth studio. The digital catering of the two versions, Arabic and French, was carried out by the French archives of the CNC film, in collaboration with Diane Baratier, the filmmaker’s daughter, the Jacques Baratier association and the Tunisian Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
The restored version was presented as part of the Cannes Classics section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, in the presence of Claudia Cardinale and the director Férid Boughedir.
Then, the restored film was presented in several other festivals, including the Lumière festival (Lyon – France) in October 2013.
In March 2018, Gohawas the inauguration film of the Tunisian Cinémathèque. Ms. Baratier, the widow of the director, and Claudia Cardinale had attended the projection.
Synopsis
Goha is a poor naive and ignorant boy who knows nothing about life, a being who does not reason and does not calculate. He seems to continue his shadow instead of working and becoming a man. In the vicinity of Goha lives a scientist respected and admired by all, Taj-el-Oloum, who wishes to remarry. His women therefore choose a new wife, a very young girl named Fulla. The girl is desperately bored in the palace of her old husband and seeks to fill the void of her life. By the greatest chance, Fulla falls in love with Goha, immediately responding to her love. When Taj-el-Oloum discovers his misfortune, he repudiated Fulla who is sent back to his father. Goha is chased from the paternal house and becomes the shame of the village.
To watch the film:
Neïla Driss
