A Tunisian breakdancer falls in with fundamentalists with designs to turn the young man into a suicide bomber.

Bahta dreams of a career as a break-dancer, but break-dancing has no high reputation in Tunisia, the police scares the dancers away. Bahta's attempt to flee to Europe fails, as the Iraque war starts. Frustrated and without perspective he gets in contact with a terrorist group.

The film shows the despair and loss suffered by Arab youth at present.
The film is set entirely on a shoot and tells the story of three characters. The director Youssef, middle aged, is torn between his private life which is falling apart and a film he is afraid of making, because althought he is really invested with it, he cannotsee it ending. The actor, Dali who accepted at the beginning, the principe of ignoring the fate ot the character he plays, feels that he is being manipulated when he discovers that the dancer he is supposed to be interpretating is destined to become a fundamentalist. He is afraid of the film and the stakes it carries and even refuses to go on with it. Finally the character he is playing, Bahta, run down by his kin, ill treated by his neighbours, sees his plans to leave to Europe to become a dancer, fall short because of the last war on Iraq. He ends up in the hands of a fishy predicator who manipulates him and brain washes him.

The film is being shot between Rades and La Goulette at the beginning of Spring 2003, just when Iraq is being invaded by the American army. All the characters feel humiliated, wounded at the very core of their beings, by this war... The spectre of September 11th is floating over them. For Youssef, the only way out is to exorcise all this through fiction. Will they manage to overcome their fears and finish the film?


NOTE BY THE PROGRAMMER (2006 Tribeca Film Festival)
Young, energetic and restless, Bahta dreams of fleeing to Europe to escape the restrictions of his life in Tunisia. At home his macho father offers nothing but criticism and when he's out with his breakdancing peers the police seem to track their every move. It's 2003; things come to a head when Iraq is invaded by the American-led coalition forces, and Bahta's European mirage evaporates. Worse still, his love life is on the rocks and, going further out on a limb with his rebellious activities, he quickly gets into serious trouble with the police. He becomes the perfect target for a fundamentalist group, which sets out to brainwash him. The procedures their leader adopts to indoctrinate Bahta into the "noble" cause are a trenchant description of the "making of" a suicide bomber. The film's title has a double meaning, since Bahta's story is interwoven with a film claiming to be the "making of" the production of that very film. And in this "documentary" the actor portraying Bahta is at loggerheads with the filmmaker (played by veteran director Nouri Bouzid himself) because he'd accepted the idea of playing the part of a breakdancer without seeing a complete script, but now that he realizes the full implications of his character's behavior, he's increasingly alarmed. This courageously outspoken film echoes some of the themes of The Yacoubian Building, shown at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival to great acclaim; both films furnish encouraging proof that Arab artists refuse to be silent, and recognize that fundamentalism isn't only a problem for the West. Winner of the Gold Tanit as Best Film at the Carthage Film Festival.
- https://tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/512cfbba1c7d76e04600205c-making-of

FESTIVALS / AWARDS / PRIX

2007 | Africa in Motion | EDINBURGH, Scottland | www.africa-in-motion.org.uk
* Selection

FESPACO 2007 - Festival Panafricain de Cinéma et de Télévision de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, 24 février - 03 mars 2007)
> Prix de la meilleure interprétation masculine : Lofti Abdelli (Dali, acteur principal)
> Prix du meilleur montage

JCC - Journées Cinématographique de Carthage (Tunisie, 11-17 novembre 2006)
* Tanit d'Or

________________


DE

Der 25-jährige Bahta träumt von einer Karriere als Breakdancer in Italien. Doch er hat keine Ausbildung, keinen Job, zudem Probleme mit seiner Freundin und wegen des Irakkriegs bleibt ihm auch die Auswanderung aus Tunesien verwehrt.
Weil er die Polizei immer wieder herausfordert, versuchen Islamisten ihn für ihre Ziele zu rekrutieren. Doch obwohl sich Bahta von deren Ideen fasziniert zeigt, ist er nicht bereit, sich zur Marionette machen zu lassen.

regie: nouri bouzid TUN/MAR/D 2006 113 min OmdU

Aspect ratio: 35 mm
35 mm: Arabisch mit deutschen Untertiteln
Dvd: Arabisch mit deutschen und englischen Untertiteln
Availability: 35mm (OF mit dt.UT), DVD, DigiBeta, Beta SP


Preiz und Festivals
Kartago Filmfestival 2007 (Tunesien): Bester Film "Golden Tanit", bester Schauspieler, beste Schauspielerin

FESPACO 2007 (Burkina Faso): Preis der COE und bester Schauspieler

Tribeca Film Festival 2007 (New York): Bestes Drehbuch, bester Schauspieler

Taormina Film Festival 2007 (Italien): Bester Film „Tauro d'Oro", bester Schauspieler

Oran International Film Festival 2007 (Algerien): Bester Film: "Golden Hoggar"

Französische Filmtage Tübingen 2007

Filmfest Hamburg 2007

Jenseits von Europa X, Köln 2008

_________________________________


Un curatissimo esperimento di metacinema, una storia nella storia. Una cornice che diventa racconto e incolla lo spettatore allo schermo. Batha è un giovane ragazzo tunisino che adora la danza e sogna l'Europa. Quando è pronto per partire verso l'Italia, scoppia la guerra in Iraq e il suo piano fallisce. Batha inizierà così a vivere con Abdù, un anziano scultore che lo vorrebbe trasformare in un martire islamico pronto all'estremo sacrificio. Di fronte a questo cambiamento improvviso, anche Lofti, l'attore che interpreta il personaggio di Batha, si ribella al regista Nouri rifiutandosi di proseguire le riprese del film.

Il film ha vinto il Tanit d'or al Festival di Cartagine 2006 e il premio per la miglior interpretazione maschile al Fespaco 2007.

Tunisia - 2006

Regia: Nouri Bouzid

Interpreti: Lofti Abdelli, Lofti Dziri, Afef ben Mahmoud, Fatma Ben Saïdane

Durata: 120'


__________________________________