Discoveries from Tunisia World Cinema

To expose her complex relationship with her grandfather, the director splits the screen in half, in a way that it parallels her universe and her grandfather's daily life

The imam of the village mosque “Chak Wak” is dead. Officials have decided to open a competition to recruit a new Imam with benefits and an attractive salary.

In 1989, television infrastructure was brought into the rural villages in Tunisia through the advocacy of Alain Decaux, then Minister for the Francophonie. The TV became the spot where families gathered and watched programs, and the broadcast images left a strong imprint on the villagers.

Running behind the chimera of a sports lottery coupon, a young man loses everything but...

The Iron Tongue is a film that presents us with an image of the traditional forge through the character of "uncle khalifa" installed in a palm hut located on the outskirts of a village in southeastern Tunisia. This film highlights how a family of which most of the members are deaf mute overcome the difficulties of work and the obstacles of communication.

The workers of the central pharmacy of Tunisia cut the throat of a calf to celebrate the dismissal obtained at the cost of numerous strikes. But the new director, however chosen by them, praises the old director and tells them that after all this anarchy, order will once again reign. Film made live by an employee of the central pharmacy.

A young girl, bedridden in a hospital bed, is questioned by the police as a suspect in a case that seems complex.

Between two evils it is necessary to choose the lesser.

Stuck in his past, an old man enters an emotional delirium while trying to go back in time.

Filmmakers have found a way to prove their existence in a country where cinema is banned...

A Tuareg who transformed from a hunter to a protector…

A man repairs an electronic device…

Aicha, a little girl mixed between her dream and her daily life.

El kateb is a broke freelancer and often lacks inspiration. One day, in a bar, he meets Liza, a tourist visiting Tunis. Both of them share thé same aspirations for a better life and despite appearances they discover their similarities. The time of a day and a night, their lives will be forever changed.

In a barbershop for men, it is keratin day. This means there is no shaving of beards or "ordinary cuts" of hair, only the magic product is available. In this purely male universe, which discusses football, sex, and politics, the entrance of a beautiful woman disturbs "the established order" of the salon.

Salima, 10, lives (almost) in a movie theatre, that of her father. Solitary and passionate about films and the atmosphere of the room, her universe will be disturbed by the arrival of some news...

Yassine, the son of an authoritarian father and a depressive mother, has managed to maintain a relatively balanced facade throughout his life. It is his powerful crush on Leïla, a classmate, that will finally tip this precarious balance.

On a dust of stars, Is drawn old and dark memories. Either I condemn you, Or i free you from your agony

"The Art of Mezoued" tells the story of the life and work of the leading figures of the Tunisian Mezoued (popular song based on the bagpipes). It portrays its pioneers and its living actors, between consecrated stars, fallen stars and rising celebrities: Salah Farzit, Mostapha Gattel Essid, Hédi Donia, Abdelkarim Benzarti and Achraf. The film relates through interviews, testimonies and live concerts in wedding parties and in various places (cafes, cabarets, party rooms... ), the dense, eventful and controversial history of the Tunisian popular song Mezoued, its rise and its crises, its musical components and its themes, its territories of deprivation and popular plebiscite, its official exclusion (until 1990) and its phenomenal success carried by popular musicians, with the appearance of "bad boys" and singular talent and by cult songs, sometimes deviant, sometimes protesting or simply funny, saucy and festive.

A dark and enigmatic ritual in which a solitary figure moves through a desert burial ground. The objects left behind speak their own silent language.

Activists and residents of Cap Bon, in northern Tunisia, testify to the threats to the ecosystem of their region, due to polluting discharges and wastewater.

The documentary focuses on the political, social, economical and ecological conditions of cereal and demonstrates how the food question is in fact at the heart of the issue of individual and collective human dignity as well as Tunisian's local and national food independence and sovereignty.

In a bar, some friends are discussing about marriage… Two of them project themselves in its illusions and disappointments.

It's the summer school holidays in 1990 South Africa and 11-year-old Boipelo is back at her grandmother Koko's four-roomed house in the Pretoria township, Atteridgeville. It's a point of uncertainty for a country on the brink of democracy but mostly, for Boipelo who will be attending a multiracial school soon. While the normal house chores and the predictable clashes with her two annoying cousins continue, her grandfather's violent coughing coming from the bedroom and conversations amongst adults signal some sort of end that she can't grapple with. Boipelo becomes consumed by the fact that she can no longer remember her dreams when her granny, like clockwork, asks her to tell her what her dreams are in order for her to play a local Chinese lottery called Mochaena/Fahfee. As the holidays draw to a close, Boipelo devises a plan so that she can dream again and bring a smile to her forlorn grandmother's face and, perhaps, have one last feeling of belonging before her life changes forever.

A personal portrait of a broken Tunisian-Bosnian family. Exprisoner and ex-jihadist Tawfik has been left alone to take care of his three teenage daughters.

In southeastern Tunisia, Salem and Halima spend months waiting for news of their son Ahmed, who has been smuggled overseas to Italy.

A vision of a revolutionary journey... A fragment of an image... A vision of a culture of resistance in a difficult revolutionary process leading to reflection.

Directed by Abdelaziz Hassine.

At dawn on a holiday, after finishing his prayers, he lies in bed and falls asleep. A voice and strange words wake him up. He begins a discussion about the cowardice of men and the fatality of death.

The olive tree is the eternal symbol of a fortified city and a witness to a glorious past rich in customs and traditions dating back to the 8th century BC. This blessed tree has played a crucial role socially, economically, and culturally. A role that we are not fully aware of.

RESOLUTION + SARABA is a film that is centered about the concept of death and memories. This work is contructed of normal and diverse moments, planned and unnplanned footage that highlights how in making memories and letting go of them one can find the sweetness of life.

A six-year-old child belonging to a family of peasants, vine growers and dairy farmers, who after a rather ordinary meeting with a man, will see his daily life fall squarely into a species. of "wonder Land" which has been totally reinvented any dimension of time and space, in which the child will venture in search of a harvest of a new type, that of being able to cultivate money, obeying a intimate conviction that only children whose dreams are crazy enough and impertinent can afford.

In Tunis, a decade after the revolution, two families’ daily lives contrast between relative comfort and quiet simplicity. Amid boredom, silent fears, and social pressures, children and adolescents develop an irresistible desire to leave the country.

“Dear grandma, you’ll be surprised to hear my voice in your language…” Those are the first words in a recorded, spoken letter that was never sent, but instead played aloud in real time by the Brussels filmmaker to her elderly grandmother in Mahdia, Tunisia. In the presence of the camera, these lines turn into a voice-over which gradually transforms into a dialogue across languages, cultures, and generations.

This TV film is a documentary about a part of Abdelaziz El Aroui’s life as a journalist during the colonial period. We all knew in our childhood El Aroui as a storyteller and columnist and we loved him, only he is more than that...

In this story, the young girl Ghariba sets out on a journey to find her friend Ajeeb and discover a way to cross a river guarded by a crocodile.

A young man wakes up in a dense forest, tied to a tree, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. The only thing he remembers is the name "Diana." Confused and scared, he finds two campers nearby who discover him.

Documentary short film restored in 4K and recostructed in 2025 by Cineteca di Bologna from a 35mm nitrate copy preserved by La Cinemathèque français

A controversial issue that reflects a part of Tunisia's cultural heritage in the countryside, it takes the viewer on a journey of tension and conflict between myth and reality, through a story revolving around the dark transformations that can occur when white magic, known as "fortification" for little girls or "Tasfih," turns into demonic possession, entering terrifying dimensions that touch on both religion and science.

Oasis in the desert: we see palm trees, camels, and a panoramic view of the village. Men exit a mosque. Women and children assemble and the women prepare a meal--smiling and laughing when they notice the camera. A group of men and children emerge with a camel from an underground gallery. A man harvests fruits from a tree. A woman vigorously crushes the fruit with a stone. A child stomps the fruit with his feet inside a container. The people often look directly at the camera while they work. We see the process of their labor production, followed by views of the old fortress, the citadel, and the village. A woman fetches water from a well in a bucket. A donkey raises a ruckus and causes a scene. A small child smiles and nods while holding the side of his head after a fight, indicating that he did well.

Nadia El Fani leaves her house one morning to protest… alone all by herself.

A young queer writer, on the verge of having her first novel released by a mainstream French publisher, confronts the literary scene in Paris and fears her work will be misread and expected to “represent” Tunisian society for readers from outside the Arab world in this intimate time capsule directed by her close friends.

The story follows Alissa and her friends on a quest to find a legendary ring. Moments before his death, Alissa's grandfather revealed the secret of the ring and gave her a map without anyone knowing. Determined to embark on the adventure, Alissa leads the group through a perilous journey across mountains and rivers, where they face difficult trials between forces of good and evil, testing their choices between temptation and principle

From JadaL's performance in Tunisia 22 Jan 2023 @ Carthage music days festival

Can a law challenge a whole system and causes chaos? The testimonies of 4 characters make us discover the repercussions of this new law on their respective lives.

The meeting of two beings brought together by death. A death by taste.

About Autophobia

The victim

The story of an abused young man who decides to take matters into his own hands, but...

Evolution of Man otherwise...

The Road is the path of volunteering between Tunisia and Libya.

The Healers. In memory of… Ahmed Ben Othmène Raddeoui and Noureddine Ben Khedher.

Black like the darkness of souls... White like the longings of the lost... It is not a clash of colors but a struggle of ambitions, a struggle of greeds There is peace only in execution and annihilation of the other… Yet the most intense struggle is not yet resolved… Who will win?..

With modern mutations and the logic of the free market, the individual finds himself faced with the fluctuating evolutions of the market subject to the logic of brutal profit. The job seeker is just a commodity in the handling market that is not subject to any ethics…

Story of a family threatened by the sea. A clown tells…

An adventure inside Foulen's dreams.

In a Middle Eastern country at war. Ahmed 10 years old brings back a box of powdered milk for his little sister Anwar. On his way home…