Popular reviews

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  Review by Robert Daniels ★★★★½

  An immaculate slice of life from Tunisia with fully felt performances and immersive camera work that’s totally enchanting and politically passionate.

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  Review by Jeff ★★★★

  With Under the Fig Trees, director Erige Sehiri wanted to show how even people underprivileged by society can find a space to express and experience freedom. That everyone has some space wherein they can be themselves. This is my interpretation of the introduction she gave for the digital screening I saw of this movie, and it's also beautifully communicated by the film.

  Taking place over the course of one day of picking figs, Fig Trees puts a camera in the middle of a group of day labourers. As they're working, they talk about their lives, various interpersonal dramas, Instagram, and of course they eventually pick figs.
  The film primarily focuses on a group of high-school-age kids, and offers an interesting…

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  Review by capu ★★★★½

  ces dialogues j’en raffole, on a l’impression d’être copines avec elles, et ces actrices mamamia VIVENT LES FEMMES 🤍

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  Review by Moresbi ★★★★

  #33 - Tunisia from March Around the World Challenge 2023

  Progress: 33/30

  "A lot of things happen in the orchards." (Indeed, indeed.)

  Well, in a way, this is a pretty nice little "fig" they caught here.

  This is pretty much about a group of character's (with their local cultural and social specificities) everyday life, set on one day they're working an orchard with fig trees. It may not sound much but there's just something about it... it's simplicity and low-key nature makes it somewhat endearing and compelling and the location/nature surrounding it (along with its characters) definitely helps.

  There's socializing, working, arguing, yelling, sharing meals, friendship, flirting, jealousy and plenty of more. There's several interesting/relevant interactions between many of the…

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  Review by Jonathan White 3

  Not rated because we didn't finish. As Lise pointed out, rather like Breakfast Club, but with Tunesian teens picking figs in an orchard.

  Very talky about mostly teen relationships. I think the reason that it didn't work for me was that there was so much dialogue my eyes were always on the lower third of the screen reading the subtitles, and missed the nuance in expressions ( I already knew this, but my goodness the Tunesian's are a beautiful people )

  It was a sunny afternoon, and one of the last nice days of summer, so we decided to abort and enjoy the rest of the day on the deck. Besides, this is the last day of VTIFF, and we usually ditch movies at this point.

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  Review by Mike Kennedy ★★★½

  Erige Sehiri‘s first narrative feature made a nice double with Ali Cherri’s The Dam which I saw immediately before it.  Sehiri co-wrote her screenplay with Peggy Hamann and Ghalya Lacroix. 

  Working with a cast of non-professional farm workers from around the Tunisian orchard where Frida Marzouk shot the film for her, the story covers one day in the life of these workers. As dawn is breaking, their young boss picks them up in the back of his utility and drives them to his orchard where they pick and pack the delicate fruit until he drives them back as the sun is setting. 

  There is drama here, but it is low key. The boss is a bully and a sexual harasser but…

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  Review by leno ★★★★½

  festival de cannes #8

  magnifique, deuxième coup de cœur de cannes. le cinéma que j’aime, qui saisit des instants, même quand il se passe pas grand-chose. j’aime tellement les films qui se déroulent sur une courte période, ici une journée de travail dans le champ de figues, avec le repas, les chansons, la vieille dame triste purée j’ai tellement envie de le revoir !
  🤍🤍🤍

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  Review by bongjoonhospal ★★★★★ 1

  breathtaking film. intimate without ever feeling invasive. the dialogue is so free flowing and natural it almost feels improvised. astonishingly organic delivery from all the actors, i almost had to remind myself this is scripted. enchanting camerawork, and while i do not want to draw comparisons i saw some of kiarostami's breath in this film. 

  while i loved all the conversational aspects of this film, from blossoming love stories to discussing the morality of a woman who chooses not to cover up on instagram to an argument about men and womens contributions to driving the french out of tunisia, what i felt the most was the silent comparison of the elder and younger women. especially in the last scene, where…

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  Review by lola🌙 ★★★½

  from the singing birds and the breeze to this dry sunlight and precious sorority, we experience for a moment whole lives under these fig trees, with such naturalness, nuances and complexity of feelings, visions and freedoms. Long live women<3

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  Review by luvi ★★★

  Had the pleasure to meet the director, Erige Sehiri, during a screening of this at my local arthouse cinema. As she was explaining the filming process in her soft and charming french accent, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by how much care and effort went into creating this piece, how cathartic it has been for her to bring it to life and how important to showcase such a simple yet powerful reality of a country that, after all, is only hers by nature, rather than nurture.

  Nature is indeed one of the main protagonists of the film, the vast majority of which is shot in an orchard, somewhere in the tunisian countryside. Here we follow a number of characters…

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  Review by lady bird ★★★

  olalala que les femmes sont belles

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  Review by Elyes ★★★½ 6

  A Day in the Tunisian Country. Some of my favorite close-ups of the year. Very intimate, fluid, and detailed. A natural progression from Sehiri’s previous film Railway Men, even if that one is documentary and this one is fiction there is a strong level of improvisation here with a non-professional cast. Both films also focus on specific industries and use the presence of labor issues as a way of providing characterization and sociopolitical insight. In a way this sort of strategy also reminded me of the work of Hassen Ferhani, a comparison which Sehiri appreciated during the Q&A.