Decolonial cinema

Last Friday, for the 35th time, the red carpet was rolled down the marble steps of the Medinat al-Thaqafa cultural centre in Tunis to officially open the Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage (JCC) film festival. Stepping onto the red carpet, Tunisian director Mehdi Basaoui and actress Fatma Sfar were met with a frenzy of flashing cameras, marking the beginning of a week of cinema from Africa and West Asia.

The JCC has maintained the same regional focus since it was founded almost 60 years ago. The festival aims to counter the dominance of the Global North in the film business, which continues even decades after states across West Asia and North Africa won their independence.

"The JCC is an opportunity for us people from the Global South to see ourselves on the big screen," explains film scholar and cineaste Sihem Sidaoui in an interview with Qantara that took place in a backroom of the 4ième Art cinema in the Tunisian capital.   

The founding fathers of the JCC, the Tunisian film critic Taher Cheriaa and the Senegalese director Osmane Sembène, created the festival in 1966 with this goal in mind. It was also important to both facilitate exchange with African countries south of the Sahara and to promote the development of local film industries. At that time, cinemas in the region only showed films from the Global North and there were hardly any in-house productions from the region itself.

This year, the festival commemorates the ongoing war on Gaza with a focus on Palestine, after having been completely cancelled last year due to the war. The other focus countries are Jordan and Senegal. The jury, which includes Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha and Chadian director Mahmmat-Saleh Haroun, has until Sunday to decide which films will receive awards. 

A focus on global injustice

The aim of promoting decolonial cinema and critically questioning global injustices is reflected in this year’s programme. Lebanese drama "Arzé" by Mira Shaib, for example, tells the story of an eponymous protagonist who tries to keep her family afloat by selling homemade pastries amid financial crisis and inflation. 

To increase the turnover of the family business, she goes into debt buy a scooter, which is then stolen. Arzé sets off with her son in search of the vehicle. 

Shaib portrays the enchanting chaos of Beirut and explores the cultural diversity of the city, where an inadequate public transport network makes everyday life difficult. It's a unique perspective on the challenges faced across Lebanese society in recent years. 

Tunisian documentary film "Sh'hili" by Habib Ayeb sheds light on the effects of climate change in the Mediterranean region, focusing on Tunisia, Morocco, Italy and France. Through powerful imagery and deeply personal narration—such as his reflections on an olive tree on his own property that is slowly dying—Ayeb delves into his own sense of grief. 

The film addresses ecological challenges, such as the invasion of the blue crab in the Adriatic caused by rising water temperatures. Through portraits of activists, farmers and scientists, it highlights collective resistance strategies. Resistance is framed by Ayeb as the only appropriate response to global climate injustice, where the Global North is the primary polluter, and the Global South suffers the most severe consequences of climate change. 

Competition from Saudi Arabia

The JCC is the oldest festival of its kind in the region, though it now has competition. Since 2021, Saudi Arabia has been hosting the better-financed Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, which is graced with Hollywood stars—like actress Michelle Rodriguez and director Spike Lee—and also offers a platform for films from Asia and Africa.

The JCC was unable to attract any film stars from the Global North this year, but Sihem Sidaoui does not see this as a loss: "Exchange is always good, but in my opinion, it is better if we keep our focus on the Global South and do not measure ourselves against visitors from the North."

At the same time, international presence has benefits for increasing visibility and network-building. New, internationally renowned festivals like the one in Jeddah, which competes with the JCC, are welcomed by many filmmakers from the Global South. These festivals provide access to new platforms for their work, which continues to receive little attention at film festivals in the Global North. 

Saudi Arabia uses mega-events like the Red Sea Festival to divert attention from its human rights record. The same criticism is levelled against Tunisia, another country guilty of severe human rights violations, particularly in its treatment of migrants. Films selected for the JCC generally fail to address this issue. Tunisian magazine Nawaat criticised the festival for its "complicit neutrality", arguing that it contradicts the founding purpose of fostering dialogue between Sub-Saharan African countries and the West Asia & North African region. 

A space for open exchange?

This year, exchange with artists from Sub-Saharan Africa is less prominent than in the festival's founding years. This was already evident in the opening ceremony on Friday 14 December, which featured no performances by artists from Sub-Saharan African countries. Additionally, the logo this year, inspired by Arabic calligraphy, also fails to reflect the festival's African identity. 

On the contrary, the focus this year is Tunisian cinema, as evidenced by the addition of a new national competition to the international one. "This is due to a backlog of Tunisian films after cancellations of the festival due to the Covid pandemic and the Gaza war. However, this new section is problematic because this is an international festival. It has Global South-Global South exchange in its DNA," explains Sihem Sidaoui. 

Moreover, the appointment of Ferid Boughedir as festival director, who was already facing accusations of sexual harassment before his selection, has attracted criticism. During the opening of the festival on Friday, there was a flash mob of feminist activists, which was eventually dispersed by force. 

Critical views on Tunisia's domestic situation, a country in which many opposition figures are imprisoned, are also difficult to express at the festival. As well as shrinking press freedom nationwide, the festival is impacted by its hierarchical organisational structure. Appointments to the festival's organising team are influenced directly by the President and the Minister of Culture, who can ultimately determine the festival's leadership. 

Nevertheless, the festival does provide a platform for films that address the Gaza war and conflict across the Middle East, often from a Palestinian perspective. Since the controversy surrounding the Israeli Palestinian film "No Other Land" at the Berlinale in February, no films on the subject have made it into competitions at prominent festivals in the Global North. 

The feature film "To a Land Unknown" by Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel and the documentary "Jenin Jenin" by Israeli Palestinian director Mohamed Bakri are both in the JCC competition, shedding light on the Middle East conflict from a Palestinian perspective. In doing so, the festival upholds its commitment to engaged art, providing a platform for important themes and an outlet for the emotions of the people watching. "The greatest achievement of a film or a festival is to touch the local audience," says Sidaoui. 

This text is a translated version of the German original.