New US Trailer for ‘Under the Fig Trees’ Award-Winning Tunisian Film
by Alex Billington
October 15, 2023
Source: YouTube
“You’d better not let him catch you.” Film Movement has revealed an official US trailer for a Tunisian indie drama titled Under the Fig Trees, made by documentary filmmaker Erige Sehiri as her first narrative feature. This initially premiered way back during the 2021 Venice Film Festival, and it is finally getting a proper art house release in the US this fall. It also toured to other fests, including at the Munich, Melbourne, Reykjavik, London, and Toronto Film Festivals in 2022. Set over the course of a single day, and with a cast made up of an ensemble of non-professional actors, Under the Fig Trees is “an elegant, understated tapestry of complex interactions” and “pleasurable, immersive experience” that ultimately reveals the ways in which sisterhood itself becomes an act of resistance. The film stars Fide Fdhili, Feten Fdhili, Ameni Fdhili, Samar Sifi, and Leila Ouhebi. The country of Tunisia 🇹🇳 has been on the rise in cinema with a talented crop of filmmakers making great films – also check out Behind the Mountains, Ashkal, and Four Daughters.
Here’s the official US trailer (+ poster) for Erige Sehiri’s Under the Fig Trees, direct from YouTube:
On a hot summer day, a crew of workers – men & women, young & old – arrive at dawn at a picturesque fig orchard in northwest Tunisia. We eavesdrop, through the sun-dappled leaves of the fig trees, on the young women stealing away precious moments from the foreman’s watchful gaze. Meanwhile, the older women, tasked with the careful job of packing the tender fruit, watch and reminisce together as well. They joke, argue, debate, gossip, flirt, all the while painting an unhurried but riveting portrait of everyday life in the rural society, where class, gender, and circumstance often don’t allow for such personal freedoms. Under the Fig Trees, originally known as Taht al-Shajara or تحت الشجرة in Arabic, is directed by Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri, making her first narrative feature film after directing the docs Family Albums and Railway Men previously, plus other shorts. The screenplay is written by Erige Sehiri & Ghalya Lacroix & Peggy Hamann. It’s produced by Palmyre Badinier, Didar Domehri, & Sehiri. This initially premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival a few years ago. Film Movement will debut Sehiri’s Under the Fig Trees in select US theaters starting October 20th, 2023 this fall. For more info, visit their official site. Who’s interested?
 |
