Language Arabic (11)

Following a violent rupture with Amr, his long-time preferred actor, the director Yehia Eskandarany (alias Youssef Chahine), is obliged to place his entire career under scrutiny. Nothing looks familiar any longer; neither his country, nor cinema he knows.

Amina (Leila Nassim) is a quiet, married Muslim woman living in Tunis with her two daughters. She is allowed certain freedoms as a Muslim woman, but is generally not allowed out on her own. Her life becomes increasingly restricted, especially after she meets up with her old school friend Aida (Amel Hédhili).

Fred (Jacques Penot), a photographer, has arrived in Tunisia to do a story on the Bezness. The Bezness are young gigolos of all ages who sell their bodies to tourists. Out of place in a world where the image is regarded as a violation and its very representation taboo, Fred finds protection from Roufa (Abdel Kechiche).

What can one do to explore the shape and form of a woman's physique when one lives in a society where women are fully covered and veiled up to the eyes? It is this question that bedevils little Noura and compels him to challenge his older friends.

What do you do when the world no longer has a place for your way of life? Starting with an ornate Bedouin wedding, we gain a glimpse of life in the desert settlement of Aum Mkhali in the northern Sahara.

Sometimes the ones we love are also our tormentors. Based on the book The Songs by A. Al Asfahani and the eponymous novel by Andre Miguel, this is the story of the desert poet Quays who is unable to “love silently”.

As a concession to fundamentalist groups, the Caliph, Al Mansour, orders all his work to be burnt. Averroes’ followers and family decide to make copies of his manuscripts and smuggle them out of the country. Thoughts have wings. No one can stop their flight.

In a village of the North-East of contemporary Morocco, the marriage of Zeinab hardly resembles a festival, her husband having decided, with others, to secretly leave the very next morning for Spain where they will work illegally.

A village is blighted by a curse. Abdesalem is appointed by a wise elder to investigate and undo it, but as he attempts to probe the mystery he also meets a strange end, one that curiously was prophesied to him.

This exquisite and compelling film is a rare work by a woman filmmaker working in an Arab country. The director Moufida Tlatli tells a personal story of the lives of servant women during the last days of French colonial rule in Tunisia in the 1950s.

The film tells the story of Omrane (Ahmed Hefiane), a scruffy man who recruits girls and young women from the poor provinces to work in wealthy homes in Tunis. His life is triangulated by two of his recruits, the rebellious Rebeh (Hend Sabri) and impish Fedhah (Ourneyma Ben Afsia).