"Tunisia Year Zero" is a film about the free­dom of speech that people recov­ered after the rev­o­lu­tion. It pro­pos­es to show the mood of a time sus­pend­ed between past and future: a spring in which denun­ci­a­tions of the cor­rup­tion and abuses of the pre­vi­ous regime go along with fears and hopes about the future of the coun­try. It is par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cerned with an area of the north­ern sub­urbs of Tunis, La Goulette, which has suf­fered from a major spec­u­la­tion in recent years, both mate­ri­al­ly and cul­tur­al­ly. The film focus­es on the speci­fici­ties of the social fabric (mostly com­posed by poor people) and on a vari­ety of occu­pa­tions (fish­er­men, shop­keep­ers, restau­ra­teurs) that remain until today threat­ened to leave their living spaces.

With a style that is both dra­mat­ic and humor­ous, the film presents sev­er­al tes­ti­monies of people that expose the absur­di­ties of the system that has dom­i­nat­ed Tunisia for sev­er­al decades. Thus, it aims at par­tic­i­pat­ing in on-going public debate on polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al issues in post-rev­o­lu­tion­ary Tunisia.

a film by Olfa CHAKROUN

Tunisia, 2011, Documentary, 10 mins (work in progress)

Original Title (French): Tunisie Année Zéro
English Title: Tunisia Year Zero
Country: Tunisia
Year: 2011
Type: Short Documentary
Duration: 10 mins
Status: Work in progress (later in 2013: LA GOULETTE ANNÉE ZÉRO)

Director: Olfa CHAKROUN
Screenwriter: Olfa CHAKROUN


PRESS
There is another Tunisian documentary film sharing quite the same title (TUNISIA, YEAR ZERO, directed by Fériel Ben Mahmoud). _________ Thierno Dia, Africiné Magazine (Dakar)



FESTIVALS / SCREENINGS
* Selection - Revolts in the Arab World /// Freiburger Film Forum - Festival of Transcultural Cinema 2011 (Freiburg, Germany) /// www.freiburger-filmforum.de/en/program/tunisie-annee-zero/ - www.freiburger-filmforum.de/en/focus/revolts-in-the-arab-world/