Weekend with… Moufida Tlatli
Film
Director Moufida Tlatli
The Academy Museum presents Weekend With… a film program series that offers audiences the chance to dive deeper into the work of a filmmaker, actor, or key creative over the course of one weekend.
On February 19, The Academy Museum presents two screenings from director and editor Moufida Tlatli.
In 1994, film editor Moufida Tlatli made her directorial debut at Cannes with The Silences of the Palace. This film won over audiences and critics, garnering a Cannes Caméra d’Or Mention d’honneur and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Despite these successes and a limited theatrical run in both Europe and North America, the film remains largely unscreened. While Tlatli went on to make two more features, The Season of Men and Nadia and Sarra, the lack of awareness and celebration for her work demonstrates many issues within the film canon: being both a woman and Arab, her work has been designated as “niche.”
Naturally, her films tell the stories of women in the Arab world, but their artistry and themes also challenge us to reconsider what is currently considered “universal.” Poetically crafted and delicately acted, Moufida Tlatli’s films are an exploration of the human condition.
THE SILENCES OF THE PALACE
A story of loss and love, The Silences of the Palace follows a mother and a daughter at two crucial times in their lives and, also, in the history of Tunisia. In the 1960s, Alia returns to the colonial palace she grew up in and, in flashbacks, recalls the struggles of her mother. Examining class, gender, and colonialism, this tour de force film also features the screen debut of now-superstar Hend Sabry.
Director: Moufida Tlatli. Cast: Hend Sabry, Ghalya Lacroix, Nejia Ouerghi. 1994. 114 min. Tunisia/France. Color. Arabic, French. 35mm.
February 19
Ted Mann Theater
7:30 PM
THE SEASON OF MEN
Moufida Tlatli’s second feature looks at an intergenerational group of women on Djerba Island, isolated from both broader Tunisian society and, moreover, from men who, for work, live away in Tunis for 11 months out of the year. Aïcha, who married young, wishes to follow her husband to the mainland, but first he decrees that she must bear him a son. Shifting between past and present, Tlatli examines the pain, frustrations, and joys of the women living in between two worlds.
Director: Moufida Tlatli. Cast: Rabiaa Ben Abdallah, Sabah Bouzouita, Ghalia Ben Ali, Hend Sabry. 2000. 122 min. Tunisia/France. Color. Arabic, French. 35mm.
February 19
Ted Mann Theater
9:30 PM
All film screenings of Weekend With…Moufida Tlatli are available here.
