The Source
Fall Grants 2018
Erige Sehiri / TV Series / Tunisia, Switzerland, Qatar / 2020 / 52 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Documentary, Social Issues
Synopsis
November 2010. The Tunisian national anthem rings throughout the Thala High School courtyard. The flag is raised, and the principal announces that Hicham, a former student, has died under “unfortunate” circumstances—running from the police, he had a fatal accident. Five friends listen in silence to the principal’s half-hearted comments. In the middle sits Hamdi, Hicham’s younger brother. Hamdi is distraught. His older brother would never try to escape a situation in which their father, a police commissioner in Thala, could have easily intervened. He wants the truth. But how can you find it in a country that specializes in hiding it? With all the fury and energy of adolescence, Hamdi embarks on this impossible quest, helped by his childhood friends—Raoua the intellectual, Fadi the strategist, Noor the audacious, and Sami the resourceful. Following Hicham’s footsteps, the band leaves Thala to venture further and further from home. They discover the world of cyber activists, and their path ends up crossing that of the historical moment unveiling before them—Bouazizi’s self-immolation, Sidi Bouzid’s uprising, the police’s murderous backlash, and Thala’s own wound—a massacre perpetrated by their own police force. The series ends with a historical scene where the gang runs to catch up with the thousands of protesters on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, on January 13th, 2011.
Credits
- Director
- Erige Sehiri
- Screenwriter
- Erige Sehiri, Cécile Allegra
- Producer
- Philippe Coeytaux
- Production Company
- Akka Films
- Production Company
- Akka Films
About the Director
Erige Sehiri is a Tunisian French director and producer. A former journalist, she started her career as a documentary filmmaker. Her breakout feature documentary, 'Railway Men', which presented the daily struggle of railway workers against the failures of the national railways, remained for six weeks in Tunisian theatres. In 2022, she wrote, directed, and produced her first fiction feature, 'Under the Fig Trees', which won several awards at the Venice International Film Festival's Final Cut and joined the selection of the 54th Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also selected to be Tunisia's official submission in the 2023 Oscars for Best International Feature Film.