INDEX ON CENSORSHIP 3/1991
Tunisia
Ferid Boughedir
Free, frank and over forty
The director of Tunisia's biggest ever box-office success talks about breaking taboos in Arab cinema
Halfouine, Child of the Terraces is about the
sexual awakening of a boy who still goes to
the women's Turkish bath with his mother: a
charming and magnanimous portrait of how
people thrive through humour and shared
ceremonies. But the frank scenes of naked
women in the bath-house and of a popular
singer being locked up on the word of
humourless informers would usually mean a
ban in all Arab countries.
This is a time when arbitrary cliches about
Arab culture are common currency . . . It is
true that much fanaticism exists and offers a
reassuring form of identity for those who
belong nowhere. On the other hand, there are
many, like myself, who want to liberate
people emotionally by helping them to think
about the rituals, traditions and even taboos
of the society from which they spring.
I believe in the liberating values of humour
. and eroticism, which were described by the
French writer Georges Bataille as 'the
approbation of life until death itself. My
ambition has been to make a film which
inspires joy and emotion and which reveals
the relaxed way of life continuing like the
pulse of society. I have done this by speaking
of what I myself witnessed and experienced.
I did not censor myself at all in making this
film: by the time you get to my age, when are
you going to be free if not now? I was
determined not to falsify reality, to show
exactly what I had experienced as a boy.
Nudity itself is not a problem in films in
Tunisia so long as it's Europeans: audiences
are used to seeing starts like Sylvia Kristel and
Ornella Muti naked. The problem was that
the women in my film were Arab and
Muslim, and most people thought that the
censorship commission would insist that
these scenes be cut, which would have ruined
the story.
However, I timed my application for a
certificate well. Sabot d'Or (Golden Shoes)
by my fellow director Nouri Bouzid had been
banned for six months. The Commission
insisted that Bouzid's film could not be
released until a scene showing the sexual act
between the protagonists, and another
portraying torture for political reasons, were
cut. The producer refused, and an inter-
national campaign, supported by Le Monde,
Cinema et Libertes and the Cannes Film
Festival, lobbied for the restrictions to be
Ferid Boughedir is a Tunisian film director
and critic.
12
lifted. People were asking whether President
Ben-Ali Was coward, or afraid of the
fundamentalists. Eventually he appointed a
new Minister of Culture, who promptly gave
Bouzid's film a permit.
I am especially glad that the film is not
forbidden for any age group. It can be seen by
all ages, as was intended. The film will be
released in Algeria, and my dream is that
people will come in busloads from the
municipalities controlled by the funda-
mentalists to see it, just as, back in 1971, the
Spanish came over the French border to
Perpignan to" see Last Tango in Paris.
Halfouine was shown at the Cairo Film
Festival in December 1990.1 insisted that it
be shown in a hall open to the general
public. Egypt is the Hollywood of Arab
cinema, but in Egyptian films they are
scarcely allowed to show a kiss.
A warm sense of humour is intrinsic to
Tunisian culture and one of its greatest assets.
Before independence, there were five satirical
papers similar to France's Le Canard
Enchain'e. But the first government in
independent Tunisia, the Parti Socialiste
Destourien, banned them all. Yet the
popularity of this film demonstrates the
difficulty of keeping Tunisians down. •
A rough ride
Free by comparison with many other Arab
countries, the climate in Tunisia is still
anything but liberal. Cinema production is
largely controlled through a state company.
There are independent companies, but lack of
finance and other constraints force Tunisian
producers to look for opportunities to work
on co-productions with foreign companies.
Films most frequently censored are those
with sexual or violent themes; a few are
censored for their political content.
Fatma 75 by Selma Baccar was banned
because it did not conform to official policy
on women. It has, however, been shown on
cultural occasions and at the 1988 Journees
Cin'ematographiques de Carthage film
festival under special authorisation. Initially,
it was allegedly banned for not giving
sufficient credit to President Bourgiba for
reforms which improved the conditions of
women, but after the November 1987
overthrow of Bourgiba, it was blamed for
giving too much credit to the former
President. Nouri Bouzid's film The Golden
Shoes, which received awards outside the
country in 1989, was only authorised for
distribution in early 1990. Bouzid was asked
by the Censorship Committee to cut 14
minutes which depicted scenes of torture and
sex. He resisted making all the cuts but after
considerable negotiation did agree to cut
four seconds.
Moncef Barbouch, a young independent
film maker, has been subjected to police
harassment and interrogation for making
documentaries under the pseudonym of
Mohamed Amin for the Muslin opposition
group An-Nadha. Tunis 87 and The
Awakening caused him troubles with the
Ministry of the Interior and obliged him to
flee the country with his wife and three
children. The films publicise the banned An-
Nahda party and relate stories of arrest,
imprisonment, torture and death under
torture of many of its members since
President Ben Ali came to power in 1987.
Barbouch based his work on interviews
with former prisoners and relatives of
prisoners who died under torture. The An-
Nahda party used the films to attack
Tunisia's human rights record, and to relate
the nature and objectives of the Muslim
movement. The films were banned and
anyone found with them is immediately
arrested. The An-Nahda party circulated
them clandestinely in Tunisia'and distri-
buted them in many Muslim countries.
In December 1989, Barbouch was arrested
and interrogated by the police about his work
and relations. In April 1990, he and his wife
were arrested at Tunis airport preparing to
travel to Paris. Barbouch's passport was
confiscated and a long period of interro-
gations, harassment and surveillance began.
In London, on his way to Canada where he
and his family have chosen to take refuge, he
said, 'I directed many films for many
organisations, including the government. I
used the pseudonym Mohamed Amin
because I know that it is dangerous in Tunisia
today to document, by writing or by filming,
the government's grave human rights
violations. For fear of being discovered and
imprisoned for what I believe is my right to
freedom of expression and also for the safety
and future of my children, I decided to go into
exile.' Said Essoulami
Saïd Essoulami is Middle East and North
Africa Research Co-ordinator for the London-
based organisation Article 19.
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