The encounter between Ahmed and Farah, two students not yet twenty, is nothing short of a romantic upheaval. But obstacles arise on the path of this impetuous desire. Ahmed’s stubborn resistance casts him adrift in the murky waters of masculinity and of gender and class relations. In this coming-of-age journey, the Arabic erotic literature the two protagonists study acts as a cathartic force: it guides Ahmed through expressing his desire and allows him to write his own intimate relationship to Arab culture. By filming the male subject with sensuality and empathy, Leyla Bouzid subverts the male gaze and invites the audience into a space of desire unencumbered by voyeurism.
Violette Boucheton
SCREENINGS
NANTES
LE CINEMATOGRAPHE
SUN 23 > 13h30 · AD/SDH
