SUMMER IN LA GOULETTE/Un Été á La Goulette (1996, Tunisia, 100 min.), directed by Ferid Boughedir; screenplay by Boughedir; cinematography by Robert Alazraki; with Sonia Mankaï (Meriem, the Muslim Girl), Ava Cohen-Jonathan (Tina, the Italian Girl), Sarah Pariente (Gigi, the Jewish Girl), Mustapha Adouani (Youssef, the Muslim Father), Guy Nataf (Jojo, the Jewish Father), Ivo Salerno (Giuseppe, the Italian Father), Amel Hedhili (Wassila, the Muslim Mother), Hélène Catzaras (Lucia, the Italian Mother), Lisa Seror (Fritna, the Jewish Mother), Gamil Ratib (Double Hadj), Mohamed Driss (Miro), Fatma Ben Saïdane (Taita), Tarak Harbi (Hamouda, the Bar Owner), Claudia Cardinale (herself). In Arabic, French, and Italian with English subtitles.
A white town on a deep blue sea.
Where rich and poor live together peacefully.
Even for Tunisia , it’s a sight to see!
Come Arabs, Jews, and Christians too.
The TGM’s about to depart.
We’re off to the beach,
The beach that won my heart!
La Goulette, La Goulette, Oh, how I love you!
Your beauty has no price,
Thanks to Youssef, Nino, and Lulu!
La Goulette, You’ll always be my paradise!
Our life’s one endless party, thanks to you!
La Goulette, You’re a siren
Like a sailor I’ll come back
To inhale your dizzying breeze.
It’s 1967 in La Goulette, the port city, near Tunis through whose harbor most of the shipping between Tunisia and the rest of the world passes. We are on the verge of the Arab-Israeli War, a war that would fundamentally change much in the Middle East and North Africa, including life in La Goulette. But that time has not yet come—these are the last days of an earlier age. We are experiencing the world of this film through the nostalgic lens of memory, and the result is a more innocent time, a happier time, the kind of place expressed in the popular song quoted above, which bookends the film.
Summer in La Goulette is inhabited by three families: one Arab, one Jewish, and one Italian Catholic. Youssef, the Muslim father, works on the train (the TGM). His wife is Wassia (played by Amel Hedhili, so wonderful as the mother in the Tunisian film Silences of the Palace) and his daughter is Meriem. Jojo is the father of the Jewish family; he makes the tastiest brik in La Goulette. His wife is Fritna, his daughter is Gigi. The Italian father is Giuseppe the Fisherman; his wife is Lucia and his daughter Tina.
The families live in the same run-down apartment building, and they’re constantly exchanging food, advice, and gossip. The three men have been best buddies since their youth, when they were on the same soccer team. Their daughters are equally inseparable. The three families are more or less observant in their respective religions, but their differences are more superficial than real—until problems arise.
The problems come in two forms. The first is a wealthy resident of La Goulette, a distant cousin of the Muslim family in the film, known as Hadj. “Hadj” is an honorific term applied to someone who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca; it is a sign of respect, and it is accorded to this man mainly because of his wealth, and the fact that he owns the apartment building in which these families live. Behind his back, however, he is known as “Double Hadj”—in part for his exaggerated (and hypocritical) religious zealousness and partly because he in fact never made it to Mecca, despite setting out twice! In short, he is viewed with a mixture of fear, contempt, and suspicion. The suspicion is well-founded. When Double Hadj accidentally glimpses the lovely nude form of young Meriem while she is taking a shower, he becomes obsessed with possessing her, despite his advanced age. He will become a scheming Iago, snooping on Meriem and her friends, betraying their secrets out of jealousy and desire. For Boughedir, he seemingly represents the worst of religious chauvinism, the kind of self-serving religiosity that will become all too common after 1967.
The girls, by the way, certainly do have secrets to hide! Meriem, Gigi, and Tina have made a pact with one another to lose their virginity by the celebration of the Day of the Madonna. It is not clear how serious they are, or why they are so determined to take this step that they know will be explosive if discovered. Clearly, the young men who become their chosen “victims” have little to attract them in their own rights, though they do become somewhat less obnoxious as the film progresses. It is really not about sex, and it is certainly not about love. They are bored, life in the apartments (though familiar and cozy) is claustrophobic, and they need some excitement in their lives. And, as young people will do, they underestimate the havoc that will result from their actions.
Into the narrative/memory brew of Un Eté à La Goulette, Ferid Boughedir also places a number of quirky, memorable characters, played by excellent character actors, who help bring the world of La Goulette to life. There is Taita the Matchmaker (played by Fatma Ben Saïdane, who was so striking in Silences of the Palace); she is seemingly ever-present, moving easily from one culture to another, secretly in love with Double Hadj. Her counterpart is Miro, played by Mohamed Driss, who was so memorable as the cobbler and confidant in Boughedir’s Halfaouine. Here, he serves as a kind of tour guide (for the young men but also for us) to the odd secrets and passionate realities of this seaside town. Finally, perhaps the strangest addition to the mix is the celebrated actress Claudia Cardinale, the most famous person to come out of La Goulette. She is a kind of mythical figure for the people of this town, a bridge between them and the larger (and Western), more successful world. So it is not surprising that Boughedir brings Cardinale herself into the film as a guest at Gigi’s sister’s wedding. It is completely improbable, yet completely fitting.
By the time the film ends, and we are given one last glimpse of our heroines sitting far away on the now-deserted beach, the peanut vendor still selling his eternal wares, the sea and a cargo ship beyond, we have a sense of the fragile nature of this now-vanished world, one which will remain for Boughedir a kind of ideal. Many in the Arab world long for a return to the Golden Age of Arab culture and political dominance that predated the ascent of the West. For Boughedir, as for the great Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, the vanished Golden Age is something very different—the kind of world that we see in La Goulette, where—for a brief time—religions, races, and cultures could live together in a volatile but ultimately harmonious state of friendship and mutual support. A world that sadly has faded away.
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Known for his work both as a scholar/theorist/historian of African and Arab Film, and as an important filmmaker, Ferid Boughedir was born in Hammam-Lif, Tunisia, in 1944. He earned a Master’s degree in Literature and a PhD. (Doctorat d’Etat) in African and Arab Cinema. While living in Paris, he also earned a diploma in Cinema Studies. He worked as an assistant director on films by the French director Robbe-Grillet and the Spanish director Arabal. His own work includes the short films La Mort Trouble (1970) and Pique Nique (1972). In the 1980s he began a series of documentaries about cinema: Caméra d’Afrique (1983), Cinéma de Carthage (1984), and Cinéma Arabe (1987).
In 1990 he made the wonderful. Halfaouine, Child of the Terraces, a rite-of-passage story of a boy’s painful journey from being an onlooker in the world of women to taking his place in the world of men. Funny, nostalgic, and bittersweet, it contains several of the character actors who appear in Summer. It was very successful at film festivals around the world.
Summer in La Goulette is Boughedir’s second feature film. It has shown in festivals around the world and was a nominee for the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival (ultimately losing to Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility).
Along with his work as a filmmaker, Boughedir is a prolific writer, festival organizer, and is a professor at the Univesity of Tunis.
Notes by Michael Dembrow
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