Aicha’s shattered family lives an isolated existence in the North African desert. Her two oldest sons have left home to fight for ISIS, breaking Aicha’s heart. Then one son returns, suffering badly from PTSD and bringing with him a pregnant bride, who remains covered and silent. Things get weird, then go bad, and Aicha is caught between her maternal love and her need for the truth. An answer comes, but it’s not what anyone expects. 

Director Joobeur created her feature debut by expanding the story from her Oscar-nominated short film of 2018, Brotherhood. As first films go, this one is remarkably assured, as the Montreal-based Tunisian filmmaker creates a visceral sense of place in her native Tunisia—you feel the heat around you, the sand between your teeth, the sun beating down. But this isn’t realism—an atmosphere of narcotic dreaminess dissolves into a growing dread and fear that Joobeur amps up almost ruthlessly. She’s a visual director, creating haunting, surreal images that carry far metaphorical weight, but ask more questions than they answer.

Joobeur kept much of the same cast from her short film, including the three brothers, all non-professional actors, who play the three brothers. But this is a film from a mother’s perspective, and Salha Nasraoui is remarkable as Aicha, giving vent to the anguished woman’s full range of feelings, her love for her sons in distinct contrast with her disgust at their cause, and her moral certainty at odds with her dismay at how it all plays out. ~SM

There is no Sunday, October 20th, 7:15pm screening as noted in the printed guide.  There will be a film in the time slot which will be announced.