Every revolution leaves behind it a field strewn with innocent victims who tend to be quickly forgotten. This is the passionate conviction of the hero of Tomorrow (Ghodwa), a Tunisian human rights lawyer. But he also fervently believes there can be “no reconciliation without justice,” the political slogan that echoes obsessively in his destabilized mind as he compulsively struggles, not against his own evident mental illness, but to convince the current government to deliver justice to the victims of the former regime. Playing this richly emotional, politically charged role is well-known Tunisian actor Dhafer L’Abidine (The Eddy, Centurion), who has also cowritten and coproduced his first film as a director. A passion project that works, the story should connect with festival audiences and maybe a bit beyond. It made its international bow at Cairo.
Tunisia’s revolution is over; the country needs to look toward the future and move on. This is the point of view of one of the most sinister politicians in recent movie memory, Supreme Court judge Ali (Ghanem Zrelli) for whom the victims of murder, torture and rape during the violent uprising known as the Arab Spring are merely closed cases. It is not the attitude of Habib (L’Abidine), whose own experience of torture has left permanent scars on his body and seriously disturbed his mind. As the drama of Habib and his teenage son Ahmed (Ahmed Berrhouma) unfolds, the audience is left to resolve the tension between wanting Habib to return to a normal life and a growing suspicion that the mad things he says are true, right and just and should be defended.
In an intriguing opener, he runs at breakneck speed through the narrow, winding alleyways of the souk, pursued by a pair of dangerous thugs. He frantically dashes all the way home, up three flights of stairs, and locks and bolts the door behind him before carefully hiding a dossier he was carrying in his briefcase. It could be the opening scene of a low-rent spy movie, and it is only when his 15-year-old son comes home from school that the truth sinks in. Habib is not being chased: he is paranoid and delusional.
The dossier he’s carrying, however, really is precious. It contains original documents and court filings of numerous victims who never received any kind of compensation for their treatment at the hands of the police and their jailers. But no authority is interested when, morning after morning, Habib dresses up formally in a suit and tie and walks to the court, where he tries to get the ear of Judge Ali. Shouting truth at the top of his lungs, he is regularly ejected from the premises, but in the ravings of a madman there is a lot that makes sense. Even if the slogans he repeats obsessively sound as stale as yesterday’s news.
Switching POVs a little too cavalierly, L’Abidine devotes a lot of screen time to the anguish of Ahmed, who is caught up in important final exams at school while he spends a week at his father’s place (reason never explained). To ratchet up the tension, the screenplay by L’Abidine and Ahmed Amer plants a deadline, a certain day when Habib is going to check into a special hospital for treatment of his mental problems. But he can lose his place on the waiting list if he screws up, and of course that threat looms heavily over Ahmed, who loves him dearly.
It’s an ambitious set-up for a first-time director, though L’Abidine, in one of his finest performances so far, does a convincing job balancing the hero’s personal tragedy with his unsinkable ideals. The confusion that clouds his face when he hears voices is heart-breaking to see, as is his struggle to appear “normal” in front of Ahmed. When he mouths slogans like “what happens tomorrow is in our hands”, he is both a lunatic and a prophet – a difficult role, indeed.
The least successful part of the film is its ending, really a series of multiple endings and turn-arounds which could have been cleaner and sharper, or at least less rhetorical. Tech credits are pleasing and professional, from Ahmed Youssef’s bright white streets of middle-class Tunis to Aleksey Chistilin’s piano score that urges us to look at the hungry kids on the street and the less privileged members of the post-revolution.
Director: Dhafer L’Abidine
Screenplay: Dhafer L’Abidine, Ahmed Amer
Cast: Dhafer L’Abidine, Ahmed Berrhouma, Rabeb Srairi, Bahri Rahal, Najla Ben Abdallah, Ghanem Zrelli
Producers: Dhafer L’Abidine, Dora Bouchoucha, Lina Chabane
Executive producers: Christopher Simon
Cinematography: Ahmed Youssef
Production design: Fatma Madani
Costume design: Olfa Attouchi
Editing: Hafedh Laridhi
Music: Aleksey Chistilin
Sound: Moncef Taleb
Production companies: Double A Productions (Tunisia) in association with Nomadis Images (Tunisia)
Venue: Cairo Film Festival (Intl. Competition)
In Arabic
96 minutes
