‘Doc a Tunis’ festival kicks off, to run 5-9/4

The 11th edition of the Doc a’ Tunis film festival started on Wednesday on the theme of ‘Humans and Hope’ and will run through April 9. The festival is held at 4ème Art and the Institut Francais de Tunisie (IFT) in the capital as well as other cities, such as Sidi Bouzid, Kairouan, Biserta and Gabes. Organized by the Ness El Fen association, the festival offers a selection of the best recent films from 10 countries in a documentary style that have not been screened in Tunisia and master classes…

Tunisian pavilion to issue travel documents at Venice Biennale

Migration will be the focus of the country’s first Biennale project in more than 50 years Tunisia will have a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year for the first time since 1958, presenting a project that focuses on migration and freedom of movement. The project involves Tunisian nationals who will issue visitors with a “travel document” at three locations across the city throughout the Biennale (13 May-26 November). “The Tunisian pavilion is forgoing the cloak of nationalism in favour of a more global and humanistic narrative. What is…

Emel Mathlouthi sings for humanity

Emel Mathlouthi’s powerful words, a tribute to the children of Syria, ring out in The Lexington in north London. Combining traditional Tunisian music with contemporary electronic beats, her stage movements blend pirouettes with staccato choreography, an eerie compliment to the music drummed. When a Tunisian man set himself alight in 2010 after being humiliated by municipal officers who confiscated his wares, protests fanned across the country and gave birth to the Jasmine revolution. As protests erupted, the charged atmosphere quickly spread to neighbouring countries. At the forefront of this anger…

Tunis International book fair

The Tunis International book fair is set to open on March 25 in El Kram Exhibition Center (Tunisian suburb). As an exceptional event for the lovers of books and titles,  the book fair offers them the chance to communicate with prominent writers and to find out beautiful titles while it is for others an opportunity to celebrate culture and to assess the book industry. Traditionally, in every session local media endeavour to carry out media coverage and follow-up of senior visitors, writers and creators.  Furthermore it spotlight new literally, scientific,…

Mark Hamill shares the first ever photo of Luke Skywalker

IT MIGHT not be throwback Thursday but Mark Hamill was definitely feeling a little nostalgic, taking to Twitter to post an adorable vintage photo. The photo in question is of the actor as his iconic Star Wars character Luke Skywalker which Hamill believes was “the very first Luke pic”. The original Star Wars hit screens back in 1977 and would go on to gross $US775 million and earn ten Academy Award nominations, winning seven. The early scenes from the movie were, as Hamill wrote, shot in Tunisia for two weeks.…

Monia Mazigh’s Hope Has Two Daughter

By Monia Mazigh, translated by Fred A. Reed Arachnide, 296 pages, $22.95 Monia Mazigh’s latest novel takes readers through a cycle of hope, uprising, despair and hope again in a story of two girls awakened by civil unrest. Hope Has Two Daughters opens in 1984: Nadia nears completing her lycée studies when the bread riots rock Tunisia and rent the fabric of Nadia’s stable but restrictive upbringing. Jump to 2010: Nadia’s daughter Lila, born and raised in Ottawa, reluctantly takes a gap year to learn Arabic in Tunis. Lila is…

Tunisia explores gender inequality on stage in ‘Terka’

The 30-minute play ‘Terka’ put on stage at 4me Art by a Ihlem Marzouki University collective, the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), will serve as an introduction to debate on the issue of women’s inequality on International Women’s Day on Wednesday. Although Tunisia boasts some of the most advanced legislation in the Arab world on the sensitive issue of equal rights between men and women, there are many issues yet to be clarified as concerns family law such as inheritance rights, equality of parents as concerns their children and…

Upstaging jihad in Tunisia’s impoverished mountains

A rustic theatre where performers wear masks carved from cactus aims to win over young Tunisians in a long neglected mountain district that has become a cradle of jihadism. Welcome to the “Jabal (mountain) Theatre” of music and dance on an open-air stage flattened from bare earth on Mount Sammama, in a range of hills that is a favoured hideout of loyalists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Since its 2011 revolution, Tunisia, birthplace of the Arab Spring, has faced jihadist attacks that have killed more than 100 security…

French organize two-day Libyan cultural festival ‘‘Min Ajil Libya’’ in Tunis

The French embassies in Libya and Tunisia unite to organize a Libyan cultural festival entitled “For Libya / Min ajil Libya” on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 March. The festival will take place at the French Institute of Tunisia. The festival will celebrate Libya and its priceless heritage, its unique identity, its rich culture, its artistic creation and its proliferation of civil society initiatives. This joint initiative with the French institutes of Libya and Tunisia ‘‘shows that another Libya is possible’’, organizers report. Over the two days, rich and diverse…

Seven times the English language drove the French mad

As French language fanatics kick up a storm about the new English slogan for the Paris 2024 Olympic bid, we take a look at other times the French have lost their cool when it comes to the English language. When Chirac stormed out of an EU summit President Jacques Chirac left a 2006 EU summit meeting in a huff after a French business leader addressed the room in English. Despite English being the official language of the session, no one seemed to have informed Chirac, who interrupted the speaker to…