Country: France
Year: 2008
Duration: 100'
Tunis, 1942. Sixteen-year-old Nour and Myriam are childhood friends;
they live in a poor neighborhood in which Jews and Muslims live
in harmony. Each would secretly like to live the life of the other.
Whereas Nour regrets not being able to go to school like her friend,
Myriam envies the love story between Nour and Khaled. When the
Nazi army enters Tunis, racial laws against Jews are enacted and Tita,
Myriam’s mother, is forbidden from working. She thus decides to marry
her daughter off to a rich doctor, destroying the girl’s dreams of love.
“I wrote this film because so often people lose contact with their best
friends after they get married. I don’t view this as destiny but it is
something that has made me reflect on the strength of youthful
friendships, which is marked by a subconscious desire and a pressing
need for identification. I wanted to extend my film’s exploration to the
intimate relationships between people and their bodies and sensuality.
It’s a film about femininity, discovering eros, relationships with others.”
Biography
film director
Karin Albou
Karin Albou (1968), after studying drama, dance, and Arabic, Hebrew and French languages and literature, studied filmmaking in Paris. His first short, Chut (1992), won the Cinécinéma prize for Best First Film. After a brief stint in documentaries making Mon
pays m’a quitté (1995), he decided to concentrate on Algeria, his father’s homeland, and made the mediumlength film Aid el kébir (1999), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Festival of Clermont-Ferrand. La Petite Jérusalem, his first feature film, was selected for the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Films Festival in 2005, where it won the prize for Best Screenplay and also received two César nominations.
FILMOGRAFIA
Chut (cm, 1992), Mon pays m’a quitté (mm, doc., TV, 1995), Aid el kébir (mm, 1999), Innocente (TV, 2000), La Petite Jérusalem (2005), Le Chant des mariées (2008).
Cast
& Credits
regia, soggetto,sceneggiatura/director,story, screenplay Karin Albou
fotografia/cinematography Laurent Brunet
montaggio/film editing Camille Cotte
scenografia/production design Khaled Joulak
costumi/costume design Tania Shebabo-Cohen
musica/music François-Eudes Chanfrault
suono/sound François Guillaume
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Lizzie Brocheré (Myriam), Olympe Borval (Nour), Najib Oudghiri (Khaled), Simon Abkarian (Raoul), Karin Albou (Tita)
produttori/producers Laurent Lavolé, Isabelle Pragier
produzione/production Gloria Films
coproduzione/coproduction France 3 Cinéma
vendita all’estero/word sales Pyramide International
fotografia/cinematography Laurent Brunet
montaggio/film editing Camille Cotte
scenografia/production design Khaled Joulak
costumi/costume design Tania Shebabo-Cohen
musica/music François-Eudes Chanfrault
suono/sound François Guillaume
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Lizzie Brocheré (Myriam), Olympe Borval (Nour), Najib Oudghiri (Khaled), Simon Abkarian (Raoul), Karin Albou (Tita)
produttori/producers Laurent Lavolé, Isabelle Pragier
produzione/production Gloria Films
coproduzione/coproduction France 3 Cinéma
vendita all’estero/word sales Pyramide International