Feature Documentary
TOTAL BUDGET
US $332,641
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US 52,000
CONTACT
heniaproduction@gmail.com
+2194579363
The coup of 1987 was not only a political event in Tunisia, but also a personal family event that turned Fatma and her family's lives upside down.
This film depicts the journey of director Fatma Riahi, in search of her father's story, a search that began 15 years after his death and 33 years after his decision to join a group that planned to overthrow the Tunisian regime of Bourguiba in a military coup.
Her father's dream of change turned their family and personal lives upside down, leaving Fatma with increasingly pressing questions that she could no longer hide. A mother in her thirties, she is now trying to understand her father's choices when he was at the same age as well as their impact on the little girl she was then, and the woman she has become today.
This poetic, political and intimate story opens the memory box, flipping through the director’s father's notebooks and voicing his friends' testimonies. So many memories, images, and stories to heal their wounds and look back on what happened to him, her, their family, Tunisia, and many others in the same situation; all the people involved in struggles and conflicts they did not choose.
After the Tunisian Revolution in 2011 and following my testimony in front of the Truth and Dignity Commission, the circle of people who knew my story began to expand. I started to narrate, and gradually, I began to feel emotional relief with each new listener to my story, as if I was treating myself with revelation. Surprisingly for me, I found out that those who I was speaking with have had similar stories about their relationship with their parents and the dictatorship and that they used to hide it or ignore it to avoid any ideological judgments. This inspired me more to narrate my story and the story lived by those who had the same experience in the world, in the countries that lived under a dictatorship. These experiences usually leave stories for families and sons who are deeply affected by the stories of relatives in prison or exile or under torture. This stage ends once the country turns from dictatorship into democracy. This transition seems smooth and good on screens and in newspapers, but the psychological and moral remains of this period have in fact remained unmentioned. The true protagonists of these stories, whether activists or victims, hide these remains inside. Even the testimonies recorded for them were just brief TV interviews. I think I need to narrate, and the world needs to listen to the deep human aspect of the story. I need to live with myself and my characters in front of the camera to gradually extract the remains of that period, so as to be able to speak about a real democratic transition and a true transitional justice and go beyond what happened without dormant hatreds and pending stories.
I know Fatma Riahi's work through her first feature film A Haunted Past. What attracted me in the first place is the sensitivity with which she approaches a political and family subject. I appreciated the humanity that emanates from the film and the courage she had to follow such a story. We then met at a festival and I liked our conversations and her passion for cinema. When she contacted me to collaborate on her second film My Father Killed Bourguiba, I did not hesitate. I think this is a film that must exist, that it will be told in an original and sensitive way and that these specific points of view on the stories of our families and our countries must be seen and heard.
It is indeed a wonderful challenge and as a producer, I am delighted to support this project. I am already considering that we could participate in workshops to work more on the treatment and the cinematographic approach of the film. We still need to complete the archival research as well as the development of the animated part of the film. We will then consider co-productions.
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2012: My Father’s Facebook