Tunisian cinema and its very first fiction film celebrate their 100th anniversary
“Zohra”, the film by Tunisian director Albert Samama-Chikli, was first screened in 1922. © Screenshot Wikimedia Commons CC0
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3 mins
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Tunisian fiction film, the most outstanding films of this centenary were screened and several round tables were organized at the Cité de la Culture in Tunis.
The celebration will continue during the year 2023 with in particular traveling cinema caravans which will go all over the country.
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Filmed after the First World War and screened for the first time on December 21, 1922,
Zorha
is a silent film.
It was made in Tunisia at the time of French colonization.
Haydée Chikli, daughter of the director and co-author of this short film, plays the main role.
She plays a young French castaway, rescued by Bedouins with whom she will live before being kidnapped by bandits.
A film almost resurrected from the past, says Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud is the author of a documentary devoted to Albert Samama-Chikli: "
This film has just been restored by the Bologna cinematheque, which found the original scenario, and who was able to fill in the gaps in the film with photographs, to make the story flow more smoothly and easier to follow.
»
Albert Samama (1872-1933), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud devotes
a thirty-minute portrait
to Albert Samama-Chickli which reveals the work of this pioneer of the 7th Tunisian art: "
It is of major importance that goes beyond Tunisia, since Albert Samama-Chikli is considered the he is one of the oldest filmmakers in the world
, insists the documentary filmmaker.
We owe him the transfer to Tunisia of a whole series of technical inventions like the radio, like the TSF, like the bicycle, and of course like the cinematograph.
A longer version of Albert Samama's portrait of Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud is being finalized.
The face of the filmmaker, made in mosaic, was inaugurated last week at the Cité de la Culture in Tunis, and a space bearing his name has been dedicated to him.
A militant cinema
In addition to
Zohra
, Tunisian cinema has more than 600 auteur films housed in the National Cinematheque.
It is a cinema that presents very specific aspects, which differentiate it from other cinemas on the African continent.
“
Even if our cinema is among the first in the world, it remains somewhat artisanal,
explains Neïla Driss, Tunisian film critic.
It's not an industry like Egyptian cinema.
On the other hand, it is very different in the sense that it is an auteur cinema.
And even, a “
militant cinema
”, according to Neïla Driss, characterized by the will
“
to denounce certain shortcomings of Tunisian society and to promote progressive ideas
”.
From its birth until a few years ago, it was essentially an auteur cinema.
Neïla Driss, film critic
Houda Ibrahim
The arrival of a commercial cinema is recent, she notes: "
It was also perhaps
after 2011
that there was a freedom of expression that Tunisians acquired, and this youth who wanted speaking, we have seen new genres appear, new themes too, new ways of filming, somewhat burlesque comedies too.
“An interesting development, which according to Neïla Driss shows”
a wealth of cinema.
»
►Also read: In Carthage, immigration and exile seen by female filmmakers
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