“Vistas of personal freedom
suddenly open up in a bittersweet
Tunisian love story,” said
Hollywood Reporter of
Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi.
Likewise, the film has enthralled
cinephiles across the globe. The
Berlin Film Festival’s international
jury, headed by legendary actress
Meryl Streep, awarded a Silver
Bear to the film’s lead actor (Majd
Mastoura). It also won the best
first feature award.
“Tunisian cinema is known for its daring,” Dora Bouchoucha
Fourati, the film’s producer, said to Reuters Africa. “The film
makes only occasional references to the events of 2011 and its
aftermath.” Ben Attia said “that was done deliberately”, to
better portray how everyday life had changed – and not
changed – in years after the uprising. “The thing which I found
so interesting right after the Arab Spring happened was just that
sort of discovery,” he said.
Tunisia is having something of a cinematic moment in the
spotlight, said The National. Hedi, which was partly funded by
Abu Dhabi’s Sanad fund and had its world premiere in
competition at the 66th Berlin Film Festival, “is its latest shining
star”. At first sight, the debut feature film from director
Mohamed Ben Attia “seems like a love story”. But on a deeper
level, it is a metaphor for the issues
and problems Tunisia faced before,
during and after the overthrow of
former president Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali in 2011. The film
documents a single week in the life
of Hedi (Majd Mastoura), a car
salesman “who drifts aimlessly in
life and does not seem overly
excited” that he is about to marry
Khedija (Omnia Ben Ghali). The
marriage was arranged by his
domineering mother, Baya (Sabah
Bouzouita), “a widow who organises everything for her son”,
who does what he is told without protest.
It is the first Arab production set in the Arab world since 1996
to vie for prizes at Europe’s first major cinema showcase of the
year, said ArabNews.com. “It’s not that I’m not ambitious, but
I never imagined going to Berlin! All of us are surprised,” Ben
Attia told AFP. Tunisia is “hailed as a rare success story of the
Arab Spring”, although “authorities have failed to improve the
economy” and last month imposed a nationwide curfew to curb
some of the worst social unrest since the revolution. “It’s true
we have a bit of a hangover,” Ben Attia said. In the film, Hedi
and Rim (played by Rim Ben Messaoud) start thinking about
quitting the country. But the director said “he has never
contemplated leaving”, especially as Tunisian films make
waves abroad. Good call.
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