National hymen

Jamel Mokni & 52' — 2010

In a Tunisian garden we watch the meeting between an young woman and a man : two young beings who like each other, birth of the desire and suddenly a life which rocks : the woman’s one. The day she lost her virginity, Nadia wanted to throw herself under a car. Because they made love, 3 Tunisian young women painfully tell how their life went upset, their reputation soiled and their self esteem disappeared forever. Intellectuals, feminists or conservatives, religious actors, students or ordinary citizens of a country in great change, the actors of the movie wonder about the determining place which the question of virginity is holding in their culture. In Tunisia, a country considered a model of development and of modernity among the whole arabo-Moslem’s world, the woman studies and works. The average age of the marriage delayed but the requirement of the virginty of the girl at the time of her wedding still remains a topic. The loss of this invaluable virginity marginalizes or excludes. The young women who lost her virginity before marriage often do not have the choice: to escape shame and to hope to be able to build a future among theirs, they have to undergo surgery. Doctor Kridi who practises the hymenorraphy explains: This ashamed and painful surgical operation consists in sewing the hymen again to guarantee a bleeding at the time of the wedding night. Some intellectuals denounce this practice. Of course hymenorraphy saved women from gutter but it takes part of general hypocrisy, domination of the woman by the man and of regression of mentalities. Why wouldn’t a young girl have the same rights as a man to have an opened out sexuality? Why are her family, her neighbors, the whole Tunisian society concerned with her intimacy? The subject of virginity is a quickly exceeded starting point and the debate is extended to paramount questions related on the women’s rights in particular and the human rights in general.

Belgium

Production : A bout de Souffle Production
Coproduction : CBA, National Cinematographic Tunisie
With the support of the Centre du cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Réalisation
Jamel Mokni
Scenario
Jamel Mokni
DOP
Thanh Van Pham
Sound
Aymen Brayek et Walid Ouerghi
Image editor
Aïn Varet
Sound editor
Peter Soldan
Mix
Xavier Pique
Image Format
Betacam digitale
Sound Format
Stereo
Available subtitles
FR, EN
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