Under the Fig Trees

Poetic portrait of a new generation of Tunisian teenagers exploring life, politics, and the gender system in a summery film that tastes of figs and smells of sunshine.

Kasra is a region in northern Tunisia that is known for its fig plantations. In one of Kasra’s beautiful fig groves, a group of young women work picking the fruit, while they talk, flirt, and bicker. Liberal and progressive ideas bounce against romantic dreams and intractable reality. Debuting director Erige Sehiri has developed the film in close collaboration with the untrained actors, and the dialogue and interplay between them is so relaxed and natural that it almost feels like you are taking part in forbidden eavesdropping on both intimate and easy conversations. Together with cinematographer Frida Marzouk’s hand-held camera, which closely follows the women’s faces as the light sifts through the fig trees’ canopy, Sehiri creates both an airy and down-to-earth visual poetry that whispers something about the future.

• Jonas Holmberg