TUNISIA WITHOUT TABOOS
Nadia El Fani’s Bedwin Hacker
Interview with Afrik.com
The Franco-Tunisian Nadia El Fani
is in France to
present her first feature film, Bedwin Hacker. A film about computer espionage, uplifting
and original, set between Paris and
Tunis, which twists the neck of
taboos and habitual clichés regarding Tunisia.
Nadia El Fani, born of a Tunisian
father and a French mother, lives between the two countries. Similarly, her first
feature film, Bedwin Hacker—which is about internet piracy and
disinformation—is set in Tunisia
and in France. Her heroine, Kalt, hacks into satellites and mixes up the European
television networks from the oasis of Midès. Nadia El Fani first
worked as an assistant director, notably for Nourid Bouzid, Roman Polanski, Romain Goupil, and Franco Zeffirelli. She has created her own production company, Z’Yeux Noirs Movies, in Tunis
in 1990. She has directed or produced
industrial and institutional films, advertising, and short films. She shares with us her thoughts on her film,
a film which shakes up clichés and preconceived ideas.
Afrik: With Bedwin
Hacker, you are taking on genre film…
Nadia El Fani: It’s a
cinema style that Arab directors haven’t yet tried. For me, it was first of all a trick to get
across a political message with humor.
Saying things that might make people clench their teeth is easier with a
genre film. That doesn’t mean that the
script was easily accepted. I put 4 ½
years into getting funding from the Tunisian government. I proposed the project four times. In France
the project was also refused. In the
end, I made the film with very little money.
Still, the story has won prizes in festivals. So it’s not as bad as they would have wanted
me to believe! With this film about
internet espionage, I’m presumably addressing the West, but in fact I’m
directly touching Tunisian society.
In fact, the film has already been shown in Tunisia. How are people reacting?
The film was very well received by Tunisians. It hasn’t yet been distributed in theaters,
but it was chosen for the Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage, where it was very much
appreciated. On college campuses, it has
become a cult film, students have spread the word
about it. On the other hand, it can
also generate negative reactions, as certain people don’t accept the political
message and find that I go too far.
It’s especially men who react poorly, no? Because in your film, it’s the women who lead
the dance!
It’s true that the men don’t necessarily play a leading role
there, but when it’s the opposite, no one notices! And then my male characters are not somber
idiots, as opposed to the female roles in most films, which are often no more
than incidental.
You are taking on themes that are still taboo in Tunisia:
sexuality, and notably for the first time, homosexuality and bisexuality…
My film is anti-clichés and its very free tone cuts into the
enormous taboos that still exist in Tunisian society. During the discussions in Tunisia,
audience members didn’t dare to directly raise the question of sex in my
film. No one, for example, speaks to me
about the two women who flaunt and speak of their relationship without
shame. It’s as if people don’t want to
see them. Same thing for the flashback
in which my heroine sleeps with a girl: I didn’t even dare to shoot a scene
with a kiss on the mouth, and yet, in Tunisia,
they asked me to cut the scene in which they are lying
side by sside in bed!
In fact, the thing that shocks the most is the alcohol. First because it’s women
drinking, and then because at one point they drink in the presence of their
father…I was also attacked for the nudity. Whereas the heroine is naked only twice and
in scenes where it is completely normal that she should be…
Your film is thus light years from the exotic snapshots of Tunisia, but
does the hip, tuned-in milieu that you film really exist in the country?
Of course! I shot it
in public places. The bar with the
Techno DJ exists. There is lots of
modernity in Arab countries today that people refuse to see or to stare
directly in the face. And then Tunisia
is one of the most advanced Arab countries in terms of women’s rights. We have laws that protect our liberties. It’s our schizophrenic and paradoxical side. When one is behind closed doors, one can do
anything, but you really can’t advertise it.
Besides, what shocks people, it’s not the fact of whether or not what I
tell exists, but rather that I show it.
There is real hypocrisy there…Tunisian society is a society of the
Not-Said. You’ve got to shake up this
mentality a little, and my film is there for that!
Were you a computer pro before making this film?
No! I worked a lot on
the technical aspect. What interested me
most of all was the way that minds are manipulated by the news, and especially
by the biases of television. Today, a
piece of news doesn’t become true until it has appeared on TV. After the first Gulf War, the Arab countries
suffered from an image deficit, because they weren’t the masters of world
news. Since then, there has been
progress, notably thanks to networks like Al Jazeera. But it’s always the West that creates the
images of the rest of the world. Thus,
it’s always the Western vision of things that dominates. Arab countries don’t exist in the present
world. You can’t get across another
message than one of violence, or of uniformity as in “All Arab countries are
Muslim.” They forget that these
countries harbor a multiplicity of religions.
You regularly wink your eye at the neighboring country, Algeria…
When the massacres began in Algeria
during the 1990s, Tunisia
was the only country to leave her borders open.
Officially, the Tunisian government didn’t aid the Algerians, but in
fact a good number of intellectuals and artists found refuge in Tunisia. The Tunisian population welcomed them; it was
something very powerful and which marked people’s spirits. Lella Frida, one of the characters in the film, is an Algerian
musician and singer who is one of those people in exile, threatened with death
in their native land.
Are you working on another film?
Yes, on a second feature film, whose universe is totally
different, goes even farther! It too
will take place between France
and Tunisia. I believe that I am definitely inhabited by
these identity problems! North
Africa and France
possess an enormous history in common.
We are close and far at the same time.
In North Africa we know France
better, we live in French culture. It’s
not reciprocated in France,
but in parallel to what is happening in music, mixing will wind up imposing
itself. It’s a question of time: France
will wind up accepting its Maghreb
side.
Interview conducted
for Afrik.com on July 9, 2003, by Olivia Marsaud
http://www.afrik.com/article6344.html
Translated by Michael
Dembrow
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