AÏCHA

Feature Film

Mehdi Barsaoui |

Tunisia, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar |

2024 |

123Min |

Arabic

Synopsis

Aya, in her late twenties, still lives with her parents in southern Tunisia and feels trapped in a life without prospects. One day, the minivan in which she commutes daily between her town and the hotel where she works crashes. As the sole survivor of the accident, she realizes it could be her chance to start a new life. She flees to Tunis under a new identity, but everything is soon compromised when she becomes the main witness to a police blunder.

Director

Mehdi Barsaoui

Producer

Habib Attia, Marc Irmer, Flaminio Zadra, Chantal Fischer

Cinematographer

Antoine HŽberlŽ

Screenplay

Mehdi M. Barsaoui

Principal Cast

Fatma Sfar, Nidhal Saadi, Yasmine Dimassi, Hela Ayed

Screenings

19 Jul 17:15 Suncoast 8

26 Jul 19:00 Ballito Junction

Mehdi Barsaoui

Born in 1984 in Tunis, Mehdi graduated in editing from the Higher Institute of Multimedia Arts in Tunis. He then went to Italy to complete his training and graduated as a director from DAMS in Bologna. He has directed three short films, which have received recognition and awards at several international festivals. His first feature film, A Son started its international career in the official selection at the 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival, where it received two awards, Best Actor for Sami Bouajila. It was distributed in twenty countries and won multiple awards globally. A Son is the first Tunisian film to win a French CŽsar Award. Aicha is his second feature film.