In Tunisia, a Ramadan soap opera revives the debate on illegal emigration

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Tunisian director Lassaad Oueslati on the set of “Harga” in the summer of 2020.

In Tunisia, the television serials broadcast during the period of Ramadan give pride of place to social issues, including the most sensitive. The director Lassaad Oueslati, known for his freedom of tone, questions this year with Harga the theme of illegal emigration, a phenomenon that has become widespread since the Tunisian revolution, to the point of becoming “Almost banal”, he emphasizes in an interview with World Africa.

The year 2020 saw an unprecedented peak in departures: nearly 14,800 migrants tried to reach the Italian coasts, between double and triple the previous years. For Lassaad Oueslati, the scale of these departures and the way in which they are envisaged in the country reveal “The fractures of Tunisian society”.

You approach in Harga the theme of illegal migration, a hot topic in Tunisia. Why did you want to make a soap opera?

Lassaad Oueslati. I had to do this soap opera because this subject touches us all on a daily basis. Every Tunisian has someone around him who has emigrated illegally. To create the characters and set a realistic setting, I went to Sicily with my producer and we met many Tunisians in an irregular situation, whether in detention centers, hotspots [points d’enregistrement des migrants à leur arrivée en Europe], or in the streets. I also conducted interviews with the families of nearly 500 missing at sea whose relatives have neither the bodies nor proof that they are dead.

Through your characters, you show that clandestine emigration is not just the result of the country’s economic difficulties, but also the fruit of a disillusionment among the youth, which was accentuated after the revolution …

Indeed, I wanted to avoid stereotypes. There is, for example, this character of a single mother who leaves, not because of unemployment, but because of the prejudices she suffers. She wants to raise her son in a country where there are no taboos regarding his situation. This is the case for many Tunisians who migrate.

We love our country, but sometimes it doesn’t accept us for who we are. The artist [un autre personnage du feuilleton] he is leaving because his socio-economic situation has become unbearable. It must be said that in Tunisia artists do not enjoy any particular social status.

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The question of the loss of identity, of the link that binds us to our country, also marked me greatly. Most of the young people I have met in Sicily live in dire conditions. However, they fear being caught and deported much more than having to endure this precariousness.

It was one of the drivers of the scenario, this need of certain Tunisians to live their misery in the shadows, in a foreign country, and not in the eyes of all, in their country, exposed to family pressure and expectations. of the society. Of course, some also succeed in their crossing to Europe, build a future there and promote it, but this dimension, afterwards, will perhaps be the subject of a sequel to the soap opera.

Why is this subject still difficult to broach for Tunisian public opinion?

It is a subject both complicated and almost banal when you see the number of Tunisians who leave each year. They are thousands. Some families even take loans to finance their children’s crossings. We wanted to show in the soap opera that the Tunisian state is also an accomplice, in a way.

So far, the only response to this phenomenon is security. When the authorities catch a young man who is trying to emigrate, he spends a few days in prison, then he is released. For those who disappear at sea, it is as if they no longer existed in the eyes of the Tunisian state.

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In some episodes of the soap opera, we also show the problem of lawyers who financially benefit the families of the disappeared by promising them to find their children, when, in fact, this never happens. We are also talking about the corruption of certain coast guards who sometimes turn a blind eye to the passage of boats.

And we denounce the treatment of migrants in Italy, the mistreatment in certain detention centers and the absurdity of expulsions, some migrants always ending up returning. It is a subject which embarrasses and which gives rise to debate because it reveals many fractures within society.

How did you balance realism and fiction?

The aesthetic treatment is closer to the documentary. We chose a shoulder camera that sticks to the characters with a filming in the open sea for the scenes on the clandestine boats. We were almost 80 people between the actors, extras and the technical team and we spent several days at sea.

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The other documentary part is the realistic description of the migrants’ experience. I also wanted to reflect the daily life of the Sub-Saharans who are part of these crossings, the racism of which they are victims on the boats. The narration and the links between the characters are more of the order of fiction, with dramatic springs.

Your soap opera is broadcast on Tunisian television during Ramadan. Why did you choose to release it during this period?

I salute the Tunisian national television which has fulfilled its public service mission by ensuring the broadcast of this series, without any censorship or intervention on the content. But, for the moment of broadcast, unfortunately we have no choice. Original Tunisian productions are reserved for Ramadan because they are linked to advertisers’ advertisements, which are very numerous during this period.

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For my part, I would like the soap opera to be broadcast at another time because many viewers remark that the subject is not necessarily adequate. At a family gathering, people appreciate funny or entertaining content more. But I’m glad we were able to upload the replay to Artify [une plate-forme tunisienne de vidéo à la demande], it also allows the Tunisian diaspora to view it. The next step is to subtitle the soap opera in Italian, English and French to make it accessible to a European audience.