A young Tunisian film buff has summed up the ubiquitous situation in which the film “La Vie d’Adèle” is entangled with which Abdellatif Kechiche has just won the Palme d’Or of the Cannes Film Festival: “Tunisia can say that it has succeeded in its revolution the day when Kechiche’s film is screened in the most beautiful Tunisian room, in the presence of members of the government, including the Islamists. »»
And yet, when it is a historical first -a director of Tunisian origin wins gold in Cannes -, nothing is going well between Kechiche and Tunisian censorship. Indeed, it seems that this film which tells the passionate love of two women and has fairly daring scenes of physical embraces should undergo the wrath of censorship.
For the moment, nothing official and there would even be negotiations between Tunisian parties and the producers of the film so that the latter was screened in the native country of Abdellatif Kechiche. In addition, officials of the French Institute in Tunisia would see a good eye the passage of this film on a Tunisian screen and would be ready to finance this operation.
According to our sources, interviews are underway with the Ministry of Culture, the first manager of which praised the prize awarded to Kechiche while stressing that the subject of the film was questionable to say the least.
The ultras and other Islamic fundamentalists also heard of the theme of Kechiche film and, according to their usual operating mode, promise a storm if it were to be screened in Tunisia. As a rule, all the proponents of the moral order oppose this film which they have not seen, will not see but will take the initiative to call for its censorship.
For his part, Kechiche, in statements to the media said it was ready to expur his work with a few scenes for a Tunisian projection to be possible. To which several Tunisian voices replied that it would amount to mutilating the work while playing the game of self -proclaimed censors.
Because again, and as in other cases, it is not an institution of the public authorities which calls for censorship but fundamentalist voices which threaten reprisals if the film was screened.
However, Kechiche dedicated his film to Tunisian youth as well as to his native country. Too bad the work that almost no one has seen was doomed to the gemonies and threatened with the self-righteous barbue, because of the theme it approaches.
Here and there, we whisper that the film could be screened as part of the Carthage Festival this summer. But these are just test balloons. It is also said that the film could open JCC 2014 in eighteen months, which amounts to drowning fish.
What seems to the agenda is that Kechiche’s film is not welcome in Tunisia. Because, it seems strong that his theme which stages a homosexual couple is not compatible with the Tartuffe mode that the Tunisian revolution takes day after day.
Another source tells us that the cultural commission of the Presidency of the Republic is currently making feet and hands to invite Kechiche to the Palais de Carthage for an interview with Marzouki with a very private projection for some privileged people whose eyes would not be shocked by a homo couple who could terrorize the general Tunisian.
Regarding a new maneuver by Marzouki to shout his liberalism on the roofs of Europe, it is unlikely that Kechiche will give up to this invitation if it was proven.
The situation is very sad because no one seems to want in Tunisia to pay to Kechiche the homage it deserves.
After a golden lion in Venice for “the fault of Voltaire”, four Césars for “the dodge”, as many Caesars and an avalanche of prices for “the seed and the mule”, Kechiche Le Tunisois remains ignored and even censored.
Certainly, no one is a prophet in his country … But will there be voices to defend this “indefensible” film or will it be necessary to organize a charter for France so that this film can be seen by Tunisians? The answer to these questions is much more prosaic because it seems that pirate copies of the film already circulate in Tunisia.
The last word: this controversy which, still silent, is preparing to break out in a long time on the situation of homosexuals in Tunisia and on the way in which they are perceived by the proponents of the moral order. Because, basically, all that we blame this film is its (contagious) tenderness for homosexuals.
