UNDER THE FIG TREES by Erige Sehiri will be screened in Toronto International Film Festival

release date August 27 2022

Tunisian film UNDER THE FIG TREES by Erige Sehiri will be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema program during the 47th edition of Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, which runs from 8th to 18th September. The film will premiere in North America after joining Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Sarajevo Film Festival, in addition to its world premiere in Cannes International Film Festival, in which it received EcoPro jury award in Directors’ Fortnight.

The film will be screened at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto on Friday, September 9, at 4:40 pm (GMT-4) Toronto time for media and filmmakers accreditation. On Tuesday, September 13, at 7:15 pm for the public, Wednesday, September 14, at 10:40 pm and Saturday, September 17, at 8 pm. It will also be screened at digital TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday, September 16, at 11 am for the Canadian audience only.

UNDER THE FIG TREES received wide media and critical acclaim when joining the official competition in Melbourne and in CineVision competition, where it premiered in Munich Film Festival after its five screenings in Cannes International Film Festival. Lovia Gyarkye wrote on The Hollywood reporter “UNDER THE FIG TREES is such a pleasurable and immersive experience”, on Screendaily.com, Amber Wikinson paid tribute for the attractive incarnation of the summer flirtations and described the film as a delicate human drama and Kaleem Aftab expressed his impress with the cast in their first debut in his review on Cineuropa.com in which the critic Amel El Gamel agreed with him, on alaraby.co.uk, as she saw that the film was approaching being a documentary due to the intense of its sincerity and the spontaneous performance of its actors.

The film takes place in one day, among the trees, where teenagers work during the summer harvest with the older workers. They both steal time and return to the memories of love lived and lost, practise their own budding desires, settle drama, and share dreams.

UNDER THE FIG TREES is Erige Sehiri’s first feature film, but she directed the awards winner feature-length documentary RAILWAY MEN. UNDER THE FIG TREES film project won MAD Solutions and Gouna Film Festival award in Final Cut workshop in Venice Film Festival and Altas Post Production award in Marrakech International Film Festival. The film is a joint production between Tunisia (Henia Production Company), Switzerland (Akka Films Company) and France (Maneki Films Company). Distributed globally by the company Luxbox, while MAD Solutions is responsible for distributing and marketing the film in the Arab world.

Erige Sehiri is a French-Tunisian director and producer. With her own production company, HENIA, she develops Tunisian author driven documentaries distinguished at VISIONS DU REEL, IDFA, CINEMED...In 2018, her groundbreaking feature documentary, RAILWAY MEN, screened for six successive weeks in Tunisian theatres. In 2021, she wrote, directed and produced her first fiction feature, UNDER THE FIG TREES, which won several post-production awards at the Venice International Film Festival (Final Cut in Venice). She then joined the selection of the 54th Director's Fortnight at Cannes 2022.