A Wider Angle Film Series: UNDER THE FIG TREES

For June, A Wider Angle, our monthly foreign and independent film series, will screen the 2021 film Under the Fig Trees, the debut feature film directed by French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri, whose previous films were all documentaries. The film premiered at the prestigious Venice International Film Festival in 2021, and was later selected as the Tunisian submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards.

The film takes place over the course of one day, as a diverse group (young and old, women and men) of workers are transported to a sun-dappled fig orchard in northwest Tunisia, where they spend the day harvesting and sorting the fruit while engaged in wide-ranging conversation. The older workers reminisce and gossip, the younger laborers flirt and argue, and the foreman attempts to figure out who might be stealing some of the fig orchard's precious crop. The cinematography gives the viewer the feel of being under the leaves with the film's cast of mostly first-time untrained actors, allowing us an authentic glimpse into the daily life of this unique society.

In Arabic with English subtitles. (Running time 93 minutes)

For a review of the film, click https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/under-the-fig-trees-film-review-2024

A Wider Angle film series is made possible through funding provided by the Friends of the Library.