Drama | Ridha Behi | Tunisia | 2022 | 86 min | Arabic, Italian and French with English subtitles.
The Island of Forgiveness follows Andrea Licari, a successful author and professor of Italian descent, as he returns to his birthplace of Djerba, Tunisia, to fulfill his mother’s wish of scattering her ashes. Along the way, he confronts his past traumas and seeks forgiveness for himself and others. A tumultuous and heartbreaking drama unfolding through the eyes of a child, during the fifties on the eve of Tunisia’s independence.
The film premiered at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Pyramid for Best Director and the Naguib Mahfouz Award for Best Screenplay. It also received six nominations at the 2022 Carthage Film Festival.
Ridha Behi is a Tunisian director who initially studied sociology and began his career as a filmmaker in 1967. His first two feature films, “The Hyena’s sun” and “Angels”, screened at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 1977 and 1985, respectively. He then went on to direct “Bitter Champagne” and “Les Hirondelles ne meurent pas a Jérusalem”, which won the Critics’ Award at the Carthage International Film Festival. Aside from his directing work, Behi was also named director-general of the Carthage International Film Festival from 2019 to 2021.
Please note that our library has limited seats and we work on a first-come, first-served basis. Our doors open at 6:30PM and the screening starts at 7:00 PM or earlier in case the space reaches its full capacity. Thank you for understanding and see you on Sunday!
