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    Free, frank and over forty The director of tunisia is biggest ever box-office success talks about breaking taboos in arab cinema

    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.
    SOURCE :


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