Wear & Tear
Fall Grants 2023 - Post-Production Stage
Sarra Abidi / Feature Narrative / Tunisia, France, Belgium, Qatar / 95 min / Original Language: Arabic, French / Interests: Drama
Synopsis
Ayda has been an operator at a call centre for several years. She is in her forties and lives by herself in an apartment in one of the neighbourhoods of Tunis. She spends her days working at the call centre, ceaselessly repeating the same sentences to foreigners on the other end of the line. She uses a European identity under the pseudonym of Clara, a client advisor in a French company that sells package vacations. In this call centre, work is carried out under close supervision, and profitability is all that counts.
The workplace is a microcosm where human relations and interests are complex. Ayda leaves her house early in the morning, and it is night by the time she returns. As years go by, her life sinks into emptiness and solitude. The seemingly inconsequential events and fortuitous encounters she makes along the way push her to reconsider her life in all its vacuity. When her superiors order her to lay off some of her coworkers, it brings about a turning point. One that triggers the urge to take charge of her life and give meaning to her existence. She begins to free herself from this job that ripped away her freedom.
Credits
- Director
- Sarra Abidi
- Screenwriter
- Sarra Abidi
- Producer
- Sarra Abidi, Ibtissem Labidi
- Production Company
- Synergy Productions (Participation of Janman's Film)
About the Director
Sarra Abidi is a Tunisian filmmaker who studied at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Tunis and INSAS in Belgium. She also studied documentary film in Montreal and production at the INA- Paris. She directed the short films, 'Le Rendez-Vous' (2006), 'Le Dernier Wagon' (2010), '111 Rue de la poste' (2011). Her first feature film 'Benzine' was released in 2018. It was selected for several international festivals and received awards. Her feature documentary 'Sulfur' will be released in theatres in 2024, and her second feature film, 'Wear & Tear', is currently in post-production.