“New energy” fuels Tunisian film

By Charles Masters

CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) – For most in the film
industry, cinema in Tunisia means a sun-and-sand location for
visiting pictures like the “Star Wars” saga.

But the North African country of 10 million people has a
vibrant, if small, local industry, whose output is showcased
Thursday in the Cannes World Cinema sidebar.

Tunisia is by far the smallest film market among the seven
countries featured in the World Cinema section in terms of
domestic box office, with only about 1 million annual
admissions. (The next smallest is Israel, with 9.5 million
admissions.)

“In the last 3-4 years, we have observed a new energy in
the industry. Cannes has picked up on this, that there is
something new in Tunisia,” said Mondher Gargouri, deputy
director of cinema production at the national filmotheque.

According to Gargouri, Tunisian audiences have snubbed
domestic production since the end of the 1980s. But this is
changing, with a dozen Tunisian releases planned for this year.
One such film is included in World Cinema, “Khochkhach,” a
provocative, gay-themed look at sexual frustration.

“It was a big popular success at home and signaled the
normalization between Tunisian film and local audiences,”
Gargouri said.

Insiders say censorship is rare but occasionally there are
“suggestions” to change some scenes. “I was surprised to find a
great liberty, with no sign of censorship,” said Serge
Sobczynski, who selected the films for World Cinema.

“There is a thriving semiprofessional movement, with lots
of people picking up cameras,” he added.

Among other features unspooling at Cannes is “VHS —
Kahloucha” directed by Nejib Belkadhi, a documentary that
follows the work of a one-man-band filmmaker and is exemplary
of the semiprofessional filmmaking tradition.

Another project is “10 Shorts, 10 Shots,” a collection of
films brought together by producer Ibrahim Letaief, who used
his own funding to assemble 10 filmmakers in a workshop over a
year to write and produce the films.

A few years ago, local output was limited to about 2-3
films a year. Now it is about five films a year, largely thanks
to generous state support. Feature films typically receive
subsidies of about $400,000, with an average Tunisian film
costing about $1 million. Tunisia boasts just 40 theaters, with
U.S.-made films accounting for half the market share.

Beyond occasional cultural events in Algeria and the
Egyptian capital Cairo to showcase Tunisian cinema, there is
surprisingly little circulation of Tunisian production across
North Africa, in part because of the different dialects spoken
in the region. “Let’s be frank: The chances of commercial
distribution of Tunisian film are pretty slim — even in
neighboring countries,” one observer said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter