Erige Sehiri’s UNDER THE FIG TREES to release for a limited time at CinÃ©mathÃ¨que de Tanger in Morocco

release date October 08 2023

Erige Sehiri’s French-Tunisian feature film, UNDER THE FIG TREES — which was Tunisia’s official submission at the Oscars for Best International Feature Film 2023 — will be holding limited screenings at Cinémathèque de Tanger in Morocco throughout the current month of October.

The Tunisian drama will be screening on October 6th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 17th and 26th at 7 pm respectively.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it received the EcoPro jury award at Directors’ Fortnight, in addition to winning several awards at the Venice International Film Festival’s Final Cut, UNDER THE FIG TREES also won Best Director at Pingyao International Film Festival, Best Film (Golden Bayard) at Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Films, and Rêvolution Award at the Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen de Bruxelles.

It also went on to win the Grand Prize from the Taipei Film Festival in Taiwan, the Silver Tanit Award from the Carthage Film Festival, and the Grand Prix at the French Cinema Days in Tübingen-Stuttgart.

Moreover, UNDER THE FIG TREES was an official selection at over 20 festivals including Toronto, BFI London, Marrakech, Karlovy Vary, Chicago, Göteborg, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, Bangkok, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Solothurn, Tromsø, Palm Springs, Tripoli, META, Reykjavik, Pingyao, Black Movie, Sarajevo, San Diego Arab and Red Sea Film festivals.

More recently, UNDER THE FIG TREES was selected to be Tunisia’s official submission at the Oscars for Best International Feature Film 2023, it has also screened at the 33rd Carthage Film Festival, in the presence of the film’s cast and crew, and having its Jordanian premiere as part of the Franco-Arab Rendez-Vous Program at AIFF.

Taking place over the course of a day, UNDER THE FIG TREES presents an intergenerational dialogue between a group of teens and older folk as they work the summer harvest, catch feelings, attempt to understand each other, and navigate the complicated terrain of building deeper ties.

UNDER THE FIG TREES is directed by Erige Sehiri and co-written by Ghalya Lacroix and Peggy Hamann. The film stars Fide Fdhili, Feten Fdhili, Ameni Fdhili, Samar Sifi and Abdelhak Mrabti.

It is a joint production between Tunisia (Henia Production Company), Switzerland (Akka Films Company), and France (Maneki Films Company). Frida Marzouk is the DOP and music by Amine Bouhafa, distributed globally by Luxbox Company, while MAD Solutions is responsible for distributing and marketing the film in the Arab world.

Erige Sehiri is a Tunisian-French director and producer. A former journalist, she started her career as a documentary filmmaker. Her groundbreaking feature documentary, RAILWAY MEN, reflecting the daily struggle of railway workers against the failures of the national railways, screened for six consecutive weeks in Tunisian theaters.

In 2022, she wrote, directed, and produced her first fiction feature, UNDER THE FIG TREES, which won several awards at the Venice International Film Festival (Final Cut in Venice) and joined the selection of the 54th Director’s Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival 2022. UNDER THE FIG TREES, was selected to be Tunisia’s official submission at the Oscars for Best International Feature Film 2023.

The Cinémathèque de Tanger is a non-profit association and alternative center for film conservation and circulation based in Tangier and created in 2006 with the mission of promoting world cinema in Morocco and Moroccan cinema in the world, creating a collection of documentary films, films, and videos by artists and experimental cinema, to propose pedagogical actions and to create a platform of dialogue and meeting for the professionals of the cinema.

Resolutely opened to the world, Cinémathèque de Tanger has been for over 10 years an intercultural space by screening Moroccan and international productions and offering a vibrant program for travelers, artists, movie-goers, and curious minds.

In that perspective, Cinémathèque de Tanger is dedicated to its strong audience policies shaped for youths and purposefully anchored with local associations and cultural initiatives.