Lilia flies back to Tunisia from Paris after her uncle Daly dies, and pretty soon she realizes his death and his life were both wrapped in things nobody wanted to say out loud.Bouzid shot most of it in her own grandmother's house in Sousse,which gives the film a weight that a studio set just couldn't fake.The story leans on Article 230 of the Tunisian penal code, a French colonial leftover from the early 1900s that still punishes same sex relationships with up to three years in prison.Heavy stuff. Eya Bouteraa plays Lilia and she's genuinely a find, standing right next to Hiam Abbass and Marion Barbeau without getting swallowed up. The Berlinale competition slot this got earlier in the year wasn't just for show either.It's rare for a film this politically loaded to also feel this warm.
That's really where the mojito line comes from, this thing works for almost any kind of moviegoer.Somebody looking for a tense family mystery gets one, since Lilia spends half the runtime digging into what actually happened to her uncle.Somebody looking for a tender queer love story gets that too,through Lilia and her partner Alice.Somebody who just wants to watch beautiful,warmly lit rooms in Sousse and Tunis will get plenty of that as well,courtesy of cinematographer Antoine Héberlé's camera work. The score, done by Yom, mixes old Arabic melodies with electronic touches, and it never gets in the way.
It runs one hour fifty one minutes, distributed in Switzerland by Cineworx, and it already opened in French speaking cinemas back in April.
Comments