Under the fig trees : de l'amour à l'ombre des figuiers | Love under the shade of fig trees - a review by Falila Gbadamassi (Afrincine.org)

Under the fig trees : de l'amour à l'ombre des figuiers

Love under the shade of fig trees 

a review by Falila Gbadamassi

published the 25/05/2022 at Africine.org: Link

The first feature film by Franco-Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri, screened at the Directors' Fortnight Cannes 2022.

 

Translation from French by Beti Ellerson. An Africine.org/African Women in Cinema Blog collaboration.

It's harvest day for Fide and his gang composed of Melek, Sana his sister, and Mariam. But for these young Tunisians, finding themselves under the fig trees seems above all an opportunity to put their love life in perspective, or at least to try to (re)build it. The images of the work environment of this agricultural labor force alternate between conversations among the young women and their male alter egos. Hence, Melek finds an old love, Abdou, who had disappeared overnight. The vestiges of love can still be found in the eyes of the young woman. As for Firas and Sana, the relationship begins...

In this closed setting that constitutes a field of figs, Erige Sehiri paints portraits of women and men where a slice of life is played out under these trees. For some it is because this work is a necessary source of income. The gravity of the sequence where the workers receive their pay, plays out side by side with the lightness of another where the four heroines spruce up after a day's work. Then Erige Sehiri's camera scrutinizes their gestures and faces down to the smallest detail.

By filming these details up close, the filmmaker seems to want to offer the viewer a personal encounter with each and every one of her characters. Finally, this feature film by the Franco-Tunisian director relates a bittersweet chronicle about feelings of love, shrouded in a bit of summery slumber.