UNDER THE FIG TREES

A summer’s day in north-western Tunisia. At dawn, young women and men wait by the roadside until they are taken to the fig grove; Ghaith, the tenant farmer, hires them as day labourers for the harvest. Among the trees, under the watch of a patriarchal foreman, there is picking, quarrelling, flirting: Melek falls for Abdou, who is only there for the summer; Sana has to check whether her colleague Firas is being faithful; the older Leila watches the younger ones’ high spirits with scepticism. By evening, more has been negotiated among the branches than wages. “Under the Fig Trees” by Erige Sehiri (Tunisia, 2022) condenses into a single working day what moves an entire country: marriage, independence, the village and the city.

Tunisian-French director Erige Sehiri comes from documentary filmmaking (“Railway Men”, 2018) and works with non-professionals, including several members of one family; Frida Marzouk’s camera stays close to faces, in handheld images full of sun flecks. There is no plot in the usual sense, only conversations and glances, out of which a collective coming-of-age emerges. It premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2022. “Under the Fig Trees” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2022 in the Berlinale World Cinema Fund section.

Shown at the 2022 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2022 · Film Archive