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| Nouri Bouzid: // ريح السد // Riḥ es-sed / L’Homme de cendres / Man of Ashes (TN 1986). Imed Maalal (Hachemi) and Khaled Ksouri (Farfat). |
// ريح السد // Riḥ essed / Riḥ al-sadd / L'uomo di cenere. [Literally: "The Wind That Takes Away Everything].
TN 1986. © 1985 Satpec / Camel. Prod.: Ahmed Bahaddine Attia per Cinétéléfilms, Satpec.
Director: Nouri Bouzid. Scen.: Nouri Bouzid. F.: Youssef Ben Youssef – colour. M.: Mika Ben Miled. Scgf.: Claude Bennys, Mohsen Rais. Mus.: Salah Mahdi. Int.: Imed Maalal (Hachemi), Khaled Ksouri (Farfat), Mustapha Adouani (Ameur), Mouna Noureddine (Neffisa), Yaacoub Bchiri (Levy).
Wassila Chaouki (Sejra), Sonia Mansour (Amina).
Loc: Sfax.
109 min
In Tunisian Arabic. With some Hebrew.
Restored in 2025 by Cineteca di Bologna in association with Cinétéléfilms and in collaboration with Cinémathèque royale de Belgique who provided the 4K raw scan of the original camera negative. The restoration of the image, the scan and restoration of the sound – stored at Éclair Préservation, were carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata and L’Image Retrouvée laboratories
DCP with English subtitles from Cinétéléfilms.
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2025: Cinemalibero.
Viewed at Cinema Modernissimo with e-subtitles in Italian, 29 June 2025.
Mohamed Challouf (Bologna 2025): "I too was there, among the huge crowd of Tunisians and foreign festivalgoers, massed together in front of the doors of the Le Colisée cinema in the heart of Tunis. The scene was almost surreal: the impatience was palpable, the pressure on the entrance doors was mounting. The police, overwhelmed, were becoming agitated. Then the batons came out in an attempt to contain the momentum of the people. It was unlike anything ever seen before for a Tunisian picture."
"That evening, we had not just come to see a film, but an event. Riḥ Es-Sed, Nouri Bouzid’s début feature, was already making waves at international festivals, notably in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Following these screenings abroad, a major smear campaign was launched against the film by several Tunisian and Arab media outlets, with rumours swirling in Tunis that the censors would never allow its theatrical release, and that the Carthage Film Festival would be our only chance to see it."
"Produced by Ahmed Bahaddine Attia, a friend and trusted ally of the director, Riḥ Es-Sed was released in a tense climate, surrounded by virulent criticism. The film was accused of breaking taboos and tackling subjects long buried in silence: homosexuality, the rape of children by a figure of authority (a boss and master) and the presence of a marginalised character, a Tunisian Jew, who becomes the confidant of the two tormented young men, Farfat and Hachemi."
"A hypocritical society did not want to see its reflection in this brutal and necessary mirror. And yet, despite the controversy, the film found its audience. I still recall the intense debate that followed the screening at the Maison de la Culture. The theatre was packed, and the audience was overcome with emotion and respect for Nouri Bouzid’s courage. That day, Tunisian cinema confronted itself: its silences, its flaws."
"At the conclusion of the 1986 Carthage Film Festival, when the Tanit d’or was presented to Nouri Bouzid, the entire crowd rose to its feet to applaud him. That moment… I will never forget it. It was more than an award; it was a victory against censorship and against fear. Riḥ Es-Sed became a phenomenon, reconciling, perhaps for the first time, the general Tunisian public with its own cinema." Mohamed Challouf (Bologna 2025)
...
FROM ITALIAN WIKIPEDIA:
"Plot
Hachemi and Farfat are two young cabinetmakers who work in the city of Sfax. Hachemi, forced by his family, is about to get married, while Farfat begins to wander aimlessly, thinking of moving to Tunis. They both share a secret: as boys they were raped by Ameur, the carpenter where they did their apprenticeship. Hachemi, in an attempt to escape from future married life, takes refuge in the past and the ghosts that compose it. One evening they go to Ameur's house. Farfat kills Ameur with a knife and leaves the city for good, while Hachemi meets his destiny, returning home to get married.
The film
Man of Ashes deals with the theme of memory and the violent past, represented by an abused childhood. According to the director, the film represents the link with a violent collective past, which through the conflicts of the characters, evokes some characteristics of Tunisian society. The authoritarian and coercive act of Hachemi's father is not totally negative, but is an attempt to re-establish order in the patriarchal hierarchical structure, which is in danger. The director was accused for this of bringing personal themes regarding his own childhood to the screen, while, as stated by Bouzid, the film is a reflection and transposition into fiction of the consequences of the violent past of his country. Even Fellini's childhood in Amarcord is fictional, since the dramatic reality as always draws from historical reality, which represents an inexhaustible source for artists.
Criticism
Critics and the public were divided on the character of Levy, the Jewish musician in the film, played by Yaacoub Bchiri. The director declared that he was perfectly aware of the reactions that such presence would have aroused. In fact, Bouzid, because of his political affiliation and militancy within a party like the "GEAS", which supported the need to create two independent states on the Palestinian issue, spent five years in prison, together with a Jewish friend who was active in the same association, knowing the issue perfectly. Dialogue between cultures is fundamental, according to Bouzid, and the character of Levy is an integral part of the Tunisian historical heritage, as well as of the director's personal memory. The choice of Mr. Levy in the film has an important dramaturgical function: the joy and pleasure (marriage) that Hachemi rejects as a patriarchal structure, are experienced through Levy's song and music. The patriarchal society cannot achieve Hachemi's happiness, who therefore seeks comfort in marginality, represented by the elderly musician."
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AA: In Man of Ashes, Nouri Bouzid might seem to be dancing on minefields, discussing a love affair between men, sexual abuse of boys, Jewish friendship and prostitution.
Yet there is no sensation, provocation or gratuitous taboo-busting in this movie, which is both bitter and tender but an ultimately humoristic and life-affirming growing-up story set in the director's hometown Sfax, the second largest city of Tunisia.
The framing story is about the marriage arrangements for the gay man Hachemi who in the betrothal feels like a stranger in his own life. In this respect I am reminded of The Wedding Banquet but Man of Ashes goes further. Hachemi's mother attempts suicide, and his raging father whips him.
The authority figures of patriarchal order are associated with assault and battery. As underage boys, Hachemi and Farfat have been sexually abused by their boss, the cabinetmaker Ameur. Childhood abuse never heals, and Farfat is driven to an ultimate settling of scores with his despoiler.
Hachemi and Farfat find refuge with other marginalized figures. They share a drink and enjoy an evening with the old Jewish musician Levy, who sings Hebrew songs accompanying himself with the lute the boys brought along. The sequence of Arab-Jewish friendship resonates with profound meaning for Nouri Bouzid, in the same way as in the oeuvre of Youssef Chahine.
Man of Ashes presents us with the sweetest bachelor party sequence I have seen in the cinema. Hachemi and his male friends enter the house of tolerance of Madame Sejra for a long night of beauty, music, dance and the joys of the bed of the enchanting Amina, a woman to fall in love with at first sight. But "forget Amina. We are used to forgetting". The key symbol (pun intended) used evocatively by Bouzid is a long bolt moving inside the lock.
But Man of Ashes is not a film based on symbols. It is about vivid and complex human beings, set in a warm and vibrant atmosphere of their Lebenswelt, conveyed in an affectionate account of the spirit of the place.
The music is mesmerizing. The cinematography is vibrant and full of life. The refined work of restoration enhances all this perfectly.
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