The String
Malik has a lot on his plate when he returns home to Tunisia after living in France. He's processing his father's death, he can't come out to his mother, and his childhood anxieties have resurfaced. But all of Malik's problems seem to fade away when he falls for Bilal, the dreamy houseboy at his mother's bourgeois estate.
Details
Release Date: 5/12/2009
Runtime: 93 minutes
Languages: Arabic, French
Director: Mehdi Ben Attia
00Production
Companies: Need Productions, Propaganda Pictures, Mille et une productions
Countries: France, Belgium, Tunisia
Trailer
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Reviews
CinemaSerf
Quite a classy little film, this one. "Malik" (Antonin Viswanadhan) returns from Paris to his home in Tunisia after the death of his father and falls in love with his mother's handyman "Bilal" (Salim Kechiouche). He doesn't so much come out to, as get caught out by, his mother - a still stunning Claudia Cardinale - and the story focuses on the personal and cultural hurdles not just current, but in his past, as they all come to terms. It's a beautifully shot, evenly paced story from a part of the world not often associated with this genre of cinema. Well worth a watch.
