Riḥ Es-Sed (Man of Ashes). 1986. Tunisia. Written and directed by Nouri Bouzid. With Imed Maalal, Khaled Ksouri, Mustapha Adouani, Mouna Noureddine. North American restoration premiere. DCP courtesy Cinétéléfilms. In Arabic; English subtitles. 109 min.
The director Mohamed Challouf vividly recalls the scene at the Tunisian premiere of Nouri Bouzid’s Man of Ashes, when crowds pushed their way past baton-wielding policemen into Le Colisée cinema, convinced this would be their first and last chance to see the film before the censors locked it up in a vault: “It was unlike anything ever seen before for a Tunisian picture….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 marginalized character, a Tunisian Jew, who becomes a 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. 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. Riḥ Es-Sed became a phenomenon, reconciling, perhaps for the first time, the general Tunisian public with its own cinema.”
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.
Screening with:
Albert Samama Chikli Rediscovered: Scenes of Tunisia, 1905–16
Accompanying the screening of Man of Ashes are some of the earliest moving images ever recorded in Tunisia. Between 1905 and 1916, the local amateur filmmaker Albert Samama Chikli made at least 60 nonfiction vignettes and newsreel items, mostly in North Africa, that were then marketed and distributed to the wonderment of audiences abroad by Gaumont, Pathé, Le Lion, Cines, and Urban/Eclipse. Presented are two representative examples: the oldest Tunisian film known to exist, a tumultuous scene of tuna fishing to rival that of Roberto Rossellini’s Stromboli, which Chikli shot on the roiling seas; and the shimmeringly beautiful color-tinted Oasis de Gabès. Chikli is best remembered as the director of Tunisia’s earliest fiction film, Zohra, The Odyssey of a Young Frenchwoman in Tunisia, from 1921—the film’s only surviving fragment is shown in this program—as well as the 1923 feature Aïn-el-Ghezal, both written by and starring his remarkable daughter Haydée Chikli. The Gaumont Pathé archives, drawing on its own collection as well as those of the Cineteca di Bologna, Cinémathèque française, and EYE Filmmuseum, has begun a new initiative to restore Chikli’s existing nonfiction films, a striking testament to this pioneer of independent Tunisian cinema.
Pêche de thon de Sidi Daoud (Tuna Fishing at Sidi Daoud). 1905. Tunisia. Directed by Albert Samama Chikli. North American restoration premiere. DCP. Silent. 5 min.
Restored in 2024 by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with FPA Classics and La Cinémathèque française at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, from a duplicate negative preserved by FPA Classics and a nitrate positive fragment from the Albert Samama Chikli Collection rediscovered in 2023 and preserved at La Cinémathèque française. Scanned at FPA Classics and La Cinémathèque française laboratories.
L’oasis de Gabès en Tunisie. 1912. France/Tunisia. Directed by Albert Samama Chikli. North American restoration premiere. DCP. Silent. Dutch intertitles; English subtitles. 2 min.
Restored in 2025 by Cineteca di Bologna at Haghefilm laboratory, from the nitrate print of compilation Dans le sud tunisien preserved by EYE Filmmuseum.
Zohra, L’Odysse d’une jeune française en Tunisie (Zohra, The Odyssey of a Young Frenchwoman in Tunisia). 1921. Tunisia. Directed by Albert Samama Chikli. Screenplay by Haydée Chikli. With Haydée Chikli, Georges Pelletier-Doisy. North American restoration premiere. DCP. Silent. French intertitles; English subtitles. 16 min.
Restored in 4K and reconstructed in 2025 by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, from a 35mm nitrate print fragment provided by La Cinémathèque française. Documentary and photo materials from the Albert Samama Chikli Archives preserved at Cineteca di Bologna were used for the reconstruction of the missing part.
Program approx. 132 min.