THEMOVIES

A carefully woven film, in which a young woman, Aïcha (Fatma Sfar), lives under her parents' roof, spending her days working in a hotel with little hope of a meaningful existence. Parents who would sell her into marriage for money and a lover who strings her along with false promises. Based on a true story that swept through Tunisia like wildfire, the director was so haunted by it that he made it the beating heart of his second film. A bus accident occurs, which Aïcha alone miraculously survives, choosing to let the world believe she had perished. This unexpected gift of fate offers her a rare chance to reshape her life from the freedom of anonymity. It’s a new life—one liberated from the suffocating weight of religious and patriarchal traditions. After a period of wandering, she finds herself in the relatively liberal city of Tunis. Soon her hard-won freedom, fragile without official documents, is threatened during a police check. She increasingly encounters corruption, and above all, sexism. A stark and unflinching tale about a courageous young woman navigating in Tunisia where conflicting worlds exist uneasily side by side.