More About Film
The film belongs to the timeless tradition of the road movie, yet the journey here is more than a physical passage from Tunis to Djerba. It becomes a search for freedom, defiance, and self-discovery. From the opening shot, the camera vividly establishes Alissa’s character, a daring, fearless young woman who sits on a bridge railing as cars rush beneath her, scales the school gate, breaks the rules meant to restrain her, and shatters the conventional image of a girl her age.Guellaty links Alyssa to the fiery hue of red, while cool shades of blue dominate the world around her. This contrast gives Alyssa a vivid visual presence, enhanced by the compelling performance of young actress Aya Belagha, and underscores her individuality and defiance of her surroundings. In her inner world, everything feels lighter and freer: classrooms transform into ballet stages, and music and light dissolve the weight of reality.Mehdi, by contrast, is Alyssa’s emotional counterpart. A dreamer and an artist, he channels the pressures of his surroundings into his drawings, creating surreal worlds that offer refuge from a reality that seems to reject him. Although it is Alyssa, not Mehdi, who longs to leave, both find a fleeting sense of freedom through the other’s dream: Mehdi departs Tunisia, fulfilling a dream that was never truly his, while Alyssa stays behind to face her world, rediscovering herself in her father’s workshop and his art, and finding peace in her responsibility toward her mother and sister.With visual patience and tenderness, Guellaty crafts an intimate film about friendship and freedom, and about a Tunisian generation struggling to breathe within a constricting reality—a small journey that unfolds into a portrait of an entire life.Mohamed Awad