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WHO DO I BELONG TO

( 2024 )
Feature Narrative Competition |
 
Tunisia
,
France
,
Canada
 |
 Arabic |
 120 min

About the film

Aicha lives with her husband and youngest son in remote northern Tunisia, haunted by the absence of her elder sons at war. When one returns with a pregnant wife, Aicha is torn between her family's love and uncovering a truth.

Director

Meryam Joobeur

Meryam Joobeur is an Academy Award nominated Canadian-Tunisian writer, director, and producer based in Montréal. Her short films Gods, Weeds and Revolutions (2013) and Born in the Maelstrom (2017) starring Sasha Lane screened in dozens of national and international festivals. Her short Brotherhood (2018) won 72 international prizes, screened in 160+ festivals and was nominated for an Oscar. Who Do I Belong to (2024) is Joobeur’s debut feature film and premiered at the Berlinale in competition. In her own words, she believes wholeheartedly in the transformative power of storytelling and hopes that her films can capture the beauty, complexity and universal nature of the human condition.

Producer

Nadim Cheikhrouha, Sarra Ben Hassen, Annick Blanc, Maria Gracia Turgeon, Meryam Joobeur

Production Company

Screenplay

Meryam Joobeur

Cinematography

Vincent Gonneville

Editing

Maxime Mathis, Meryam Joobeur

Sound

Aymen Labidi, Gwennolé Le Borgne, Elias Boughedir, Niels Barletta

Cast

Salha Nasroui, Mohamed Hassine Grayya, Malek Mechergui, Adam Bessa, Dea Liane, Rayen Mechergui, Chaker Mechergui

Contacts

International Sales: Luxbox, Natacha Kaganski, natacha@luxboxfilms.com; Middle East Distributor: Film Clinic Indie Distribution, Ahmed Sobky, a.sobky@film-clinic.com

Producer

Nadim Cheikhrouha, Sarra Ben Hassen, Annick Blanc, Maria Gracia Turgeon, Meryam Joobeur

Production Company

Screenplay

Meryam Joobeur

Cinematography

Vincent Gonneville

Editing

Maxime Mathis, Meryam Joobeur

Sound

Aymen Labidi, Gwennolé Le Borgne, Elias Boughedir, Niels Barletta

Cast

Salha Nasroui, Mohamed Hassine Grayya, Malek Mechergui, Adam Bessa, Dea Liane, Rayen Mechergui, Chaker Mechergui

Contacts

International Sales: Luxbox, Natacha Kaganski, natacha@luxboxfilms.com; Middle East Distributor: Film Clinic Indie Distribution, Ahmed Sobky, a.sobky@film-clinic.com

More About Film

The director made her mark in 2020, when her short film Brotherhood, was selected for the Oscars. In it, a family in northern Tunisia grapples with their sons’ decision to join ISIS in Syria. Who do I Belong to is an expansion of this story, featuring the same actors from the short film. Aicha lives with her husband and youngest son in the remote north of Tunisia. They  live in fear after the eldest sons, Mehdi and Amine, left to join ISIS in Syria. Unexpectedly, one of the sons, Mehdi, returns home with a  pregnant wife, fully clad in her niqab. The village, shaken by supernatural signs it cannot decipher, seeks in the woman’s  gaze the answers to understand the origin of the eerie happenings that have affected it since the day of Mehdi’s return, but  in the woman’s distant  eyes there is no answer. The conflict at the heart of the film is universal and it is a dual one: on the one hand, Who do I Belong to stages the torment of loving someone without being able to understand or recognize him anymore. The son who was thought lost returns home, but the agnition is aborted: something inside Mehdi  has transmigrated to an unattainable elsewhere, but maternal love welcomes and forgives, without asking, without having to or wanting to know. On the other hand  it gives shape to Mehdi’s suffering and tremendous guilt, which, thanks to the courage of the director becomes a very powerful and universal metaphor for the devastating consequences of war, which, if it does not destroy bodies and minds at the front, it annihilates through the intolerable guilt feelings that persist, poisoning the soul, even when the war is long gone. An overwhelming and courageous first feature, intense and elegant, in which every element has diegetic value, gripping cinematography, eerie sound, and contributes to the creation of a mysterious atmosphere  that undermines our reliance on empirical truth in favor of something more bewildering and intuitive. Teresa Cavina

Producer

Nadim Cheikhrouha, Sarra Ben Hassen, Annick Blanc, Maria Gracia Turgeon, Meryam Joobeur

Screenplay

Meryam Joobeur

Cinematography

Vincent Gonneville

Editing

Maxime Mathis, Meryam Joobeur

Sound

Aymen Labidi, Gwennolé Le Borgne, Elias Boughedir, Niels Barletta

Cast

Salha Nasroui, Mohamed Hassine Grayya, Malek Mechergui, Adam Bessa, Dea Liane, Rayen Mechergui, Chaker Mechergui

Contact

International Sales: Luxbox, Natacha Kaganski, natacha@luxboxfilms.com; Middle East Distributor: Film Clinic Indie Distribution, Ahmed Sobky, a.sobky@film-clinic.com

More About Film

The director made her mark in 2020, when her short film Brotherhood, was selected for the Oscars. In it, a family in northern Tunisia grapples with their sons' decision to join ISIS in Syria. Who do I Belong to is an expansion of this story, featuring the same actors from the short film. Aicha lives with her husband and youngest son in the remote north of Tunisia. They  live in fear after the eldest sons, Mehdi and Amine, left to join ISIS in Syria. Unexpectedly, one of the sons, Mehdi, returns home with a  pregnant wife, fully clad in her niqab. The village, shaken by supernatural signs it cannot decipher, seeks in the woman’s  gaze the answers to understand the origin of the eerie happenings that have affected it since the day of Mehdi's return, but  in the woman's distant  eyes there is no answer. The conflict at the heart of the film is universal and it is a dual one: on the one hand, Who do I Belong to stages the torment of loving someone without being able to understand or recognize him anymore. The son who was thought lost returns home, but the agnition is aborted: something inside Mehdi  has transmigrated to an unattainable elsewhere, but maternal love welcomes and forgives, without asking, without having to or wanting to know. On the other hand  it gives shape to Mehdi's suffering and tremendous guilt, which, thanks to the courage of the director becomes a very powerful and universal metaphor for the devastating consequences of war, which, if it does not destroy bodies and minds at the front, it annihilates through the intolerable guilt feelings that persist, poisoning the soul, even when the war is long gone. An overwhelming and courageous first feature, intense and elegant, in which every element has diegetic value, gripping cinematography, eerie sound, and contributes to the creation of a mysterious atmosphere  that undermines our reliance on empirical truth in favor of something more bewildering and intuitive. Teresa Cavina