Africa report
Tunisia: the issue of mental health treated in the cinema
Audio 02:13
The posters of the films "Communion" and "Ghodwa" (Tomorrow), two Tunisian films which address the problem of mental health due for the first to the pandemic and the other to the aftermath of the 2011 Revolution. © Propaganda - Double
By: Lilia Blaise Follow
2 mins
In Tunisia, two films take a close look at mental health in the post-revolution context, a subject that is sometimes taboo and little popularized.
The film
Ghodwa,
by Dhafer El Abidine looks at the descent into hell of a lawyer in search of justice, while the film
Communion by Nejib
Belkhadi addresses the consequences of confinement on the life of a couple.
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In
Ghodwa
(Tomorrow
in French), Habib a lawyer and human rights activist wants to bring justice to the victims of the dictatorship, but no one listens to him anymore in a political context where many want to forget the 2011 uprising. gradually into madness, in front of her teenage son, the only one who still tries to help her.
It's a film that directly touches on the current ills of Tunisian society, as Dora Bouchoucha, producer, explains to us: “
There were a lot of problems after the revolution.
I have psychoanalyst and psychiatrist friends who tell me that they have never worked so much, it was almost like an open-air asylum in a difficult context and without being prepared for it.
»
Through the eyes of director and actor Dhafer El Abidine, Habib's psychiatric problems are treated in an empathetic way, a way of also bringing viewers to better understand these disorders and breaking taboos around the disease, in the Arab world. .
“
He moved a lot in the Arab world;
the first screening we had in Cairo, people were in tears.
»
Touch, but also archive.
Ghodwa
evokes a society in crisis after the disappointments of the revolution.
According to several studies, psychiatric disorders increased after the 2011 uprising.
Communion,
a film shot during the pandemic
In
Communion
, director Nejib Belkadhi seized the period of confinement during the health crisis to shoot an auteur film in a few days with a very small team.
"
We had a lot of constraints, we didn't have the time, we didn't have filming permission and we didn't have a budget
," he lists.
A direct testimony to the experience of Tunisians during this period.
"
When I watch the film today I say to myself
'but it's not possible, we experienced that'"
,
the director is still surprised.
Yes I talk a little about what we were doing during the pandemic, the bleach spray that we put on everything we eat, yes we have reached a fairly high threshold of psychosis.
»
The film was screened in Tunis during a special discussion session with psychologists and psychiatrists, a way of continuing the debate on the psychological after-effects of the pandemic still present in the country.
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Tunisia
Culture
Movie theater