THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT
After the very beautiful My dear child (2018), Tunisian filmmaker Mohamed Ben Attia once again delves into the depths of a filial relationship. After a four-year stay in prison for destroying his workplace, Rafik (Majd Mastoura) finds his freedom with one idea in mind: he goes to his ex-wife and kidnaps their son. It is far, very far from society and social realism that a road movie begins along a Tunisian mountain range.
Beyond the mountains becomes refined as it progresses, ultimately taking on the appearance of a parable: a shepherd abandons his flock to join the father and his son; Rafik, looking like a prophet, discovers a superpower. A final movement brings us closer to the thriller, but these successive mutations lack the feeling of necessity: the story seems to navigate by sight and disseminates its symbols without us knowing very well what they come to symbolize. Or on the contrary, we guess it too well: the film represents an ode to freedom, far from the determinisms of life in society, but which is carried out in a somewhat naive game of oppositions: city/countryside, prison /flight. Through its imprecision, the tale ends up losing sight of the reality it was supposed to represent.
Tunisian film by Mohamed Ben Attia. With Majd Mastoura, Walid Bouchhioua, Samer Bisharat (1h38).