trimmerb1234
"What is a Mum?" a British television advertisement once famously asked - the answer (in the 1950s) was someone who cooked for her family, washed their clothes cleaner than anyone else and was an attractive help mate for Dad.A (modest Tunisian widowed) Mum we are asked to believe, ditches 40 years of ingrained modesty and glides without too much difficulty into shaking her booty for a male audience at a sleazy club where patrons arrange sexual liaisons with the dancers. That she starts an affair with one of the musicians, perhaps 15 years her junior, who in turn dates her daughter and that she coolly and with utter poise deals with this novel highly delicate and unconventional situation. And finally at her daughter's wedding Mum dances erotically for her son-in-law/lover and all's well that ends well.The over extended soft porn love-making scene between Mum and future son-in-law rather gives the game away - the Tunisian director wants to demonstrate that her film (and liberated Tunisians) need cede little in terms of liberation to modern day France. Additionally it is sending a message that Tunisian women brought up in traditional ways can instantly and deftly adopt very sophisticated attitudes disregarding binding religious and cultural taboos both privately and in public.For those Tunisians who admire European sexual liberation and female emancipation it is presumably a brave landmark film and a blow struck against the old ways.As a window on modern Tunisia it seems unconvincing even nonsensical however well shot and in the case of Mum, charmingly acted.
Tan karhui
Another female-centric movie which is somewhat Karmen Gaei meets Sirens. Karmen Gaei being a similarly African film with long sequences of song-and-dance, and Sirens being a middle-aged woman who discovers new found sexuality within her.This movie starts off somewhat languidly, and lulls you into a sleepy mood. The main protaganist, Lilia, a beautiful widow, goes about her sheltered life comfortably. Everyday she goes to the market, chats on the phone and fusses over her daughter, much to the latter's chargrin. She entombs herself with memories of her late husband together in the apartment. In one of her many quests to control her daughter, she accidentally stumbles onto a cabarat a few streets from her house. Ever so slowly, the movie merges her mundane world with the frenzy of the cabarat world. The cabarat has an irresistable charm, with its incessant drumbeats, and riots of colours that draw people like flies to the light. And that is what happens to Lilia. To the rest of us, it is a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, just like Karmen Gaei, the song-and-dance sequence goes on for far too long for non-africans. The terrible pacing, which is a blasphemy in the western world of CGI and action, snuffs out whatever interest is left of the viewer.The one good saving point of this movie is the portrayal of Tunisian society. The titanic struggle between secularism and Islam, the east and west, the young and old, conservatism and liberation, threatens to boil over at some point, but they never do. Somehow the Tunisian society resolve these issues much more elegantly than say, more fundamentalist Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia or Egypt.Watching this movie makes me feel I've just been to the modern city of Tunis to pay a visit to a boring aunt for the weekend.Rating : 5.0
tonebone
the plot of this movie is a bit contrived in certain places: i find it hard to believe that a widow can morph herself into a belly dancer/mrs. robinson type in such a short timespan, especially in conservative tunisia.despite that, i'd have to say this is quite an "aphrodisiac" movie: for you guys out there who are dating "shy" women, or for you guys out there who want to rekindle some passion in your love life, have a go at watching this movie together, and then enjoy each other as the "tiger" within your woman comes out!my thanks to raja amari (a new & promising talent) for a wonderful aphrodisiac.
ekh2001
I liked this film, mostly because it was different from anything that comes out of Hollywood these days. First of all, the women actually look like normal women. I was pleasantly surprised to see older women with imperfect bodies depicted as sexy. Unlike shane k, I didn't think it was so predictable. I actually thought it was amazing how a once plain, shy, wallflower-like widow transforms into a manipulative and deceiving exotic dancer. What was most amazing was that it was not entirely implausible. The belly dancing, for her, was a way to feel things she had either never felt before or not in a long time - enchanting, desirable, alive. In the beginning, she was obsessed with her daughter because she didn't have a life of her own. Rather, she was envious of her daughter because she actually had a life. Once Lilia found something interesting on her own, she could let her daughter go. One warning, it is a little slow in the beginning. But like the dancing in the cabaret, it picks up to a rapid pace by the end. All in all, a pretty good movie.
AD
