Arquivo

Khaled Ghorbal’s first feature proves that to be a woman in Tunisia is an arduous and painful task. His camera follows along with the erratic path taken by Fatma, aged 17, who has lost her mother. She lives in the small town of Sfax with her father, brothers, and her cousin Taher who rapes her. Fatma has only one thing in mind: to go away and to study in Tunis. In the capital, she is seduced by Mourad. After she passes her final exams, she decides to leave, and abandons her suitor and her studies. She finally ends up in the lost village of Zannouch where she will be a teacher. Yet another man appears in her life, this time love at first sight: doctor Aziz, whom she is to marry. Before the wedding, however, she decides she will sew up her hymen herself to simulate virginity. “This story is based on real fact. Tunisian women have yet to take the word in their hands. To speak and to be heard is the best way of facing up to those who want a return to subservient females from the past”, says director Khaled Ghorbal.