2015 ‘À peine j'ouvre les yeux’ Directed by Leyla Bouzid
Tunis, summer 2010, a few months before the Revolution: Farah, 18 years old, has just graduated and her family already sees her as a future doctor. But she doesn't have the same idea. She sings in a political rock band, has a passion for life, gets drunk, discovers love and her city by night against the wishes of her mother Hayet, who knows Tunisia and its dangers all too well.
على حلة عيني
Coming of age of the 18year old Farah shortly before the arab spring. She has just finished her final school exams and wants to sing with her band. Her parents expect her to study medicine. She rebells, runs away, comes back, fights with her mother. Her songs are political which leads to lots of problems. She also gets into trouble with her boy-friend.
Technically the movie is ok. The actors are very good and convincing.
Even though the girl is a good singer and there are some beautiful scenes, the plot itself was too thin for my taste.
I didn´t really like Farahs character and I had difficulties to understand the other people in the movie (e.g. why the boy-friend breaks up with her, why the mother doesn´t explain to the girl how stupid she acts, etc.)
The last 15-20 minutes are pretty intense.
I ached watching this film. There is no simpler way to put it. Bouzid’s debut is a fucking revelation and a sheer triumph for the entirety of Arab cinema. Here is a story that encapsulates in a ridiculously lean 102 minutes the fear and fever of our existence as Arab youth in a time that constantly fluctuates between despair and revolution. Farah’s story (given divine life through Baya Medhaffar’s majestically controlled performance) is a fundamentally Tunisian one, but speaks to our entire consciousness. After the last two years started to make it seem like the entire Arab Spring was a wasted endeavor, Bouzid gave us a holy reminder of why we did, and continue, to fight.
Though every single arc…
SISTERS IN AFRICAN CINEMA film festival
This was shown as the opening film. Before that the audience was treated to five beautiful songs by Rutendo Machiridza who sung and played an instrument called Mbira.
The film itself is also full of gorgeous music (the soundtrack is available at youtube) which is essential for the story and the mood (so i don't quite get the complaints about those scenes...just sit back, listen, feel, watch...enjoy...?!).
Farah can't contain her emotions. They pour out of her eyes, her gestures, her actions and especially out of her voice when she sings.
Farah can't contain her emotions. And why should she if she's doing nothing bad, nothing wrong. What's the matter with singing in a…
haven't seen an ending so softly powerful since dogfight, brb gonna go cry myself to sleep
The way mothers always are afraid of their daughters making the same mistakes as them is universal.
100 New Directors | #32 Leyla Bouzid
! Baya Medhaffer ! is ! simply ! entrancing !!!
Cinematic World Tour 2018: Destination 161 (Tunisia)
Farah is an aspiring young singer living in Tunis, who, against the wishes of her loving but sternly traditionalist mother, becoming involved with a band writing and performing songs that attack the government and status quo in Tunisia, while also breaking social norms by drinking, smoking and fraternising with boys. Inevitably things don't work out well and the film does a good job of subtly building that narrative arc through the inevitable flowering of young, passionate ideals in the increasingly liberalising cities, the ease with which that flourishes, but, alongside it, the harsh realities of living under a strict, authoritarian regime, which, in the euphoria of the moment, can be so easily underestimated. The music is great, as are the performances, particularly from its star, Baya Medhaffar.
θα ειμαι απολυτως ειλικρινης και θα παραδεχτω οτι εβαλα να δω αυτην την ταινια για το πανεμορφο αγορι με την χαιτη που παιζει το γκομενακι της κοπελας
και που γρηγορα αποδειχτηκε υπερτατος μαλακας
the screenplay was not it sometimes but the film did get its points across regardless! baya medhaffer was amazing, and the band's music was so good???
