Directed by Ferid Boughedir
1990, 98 minutes
Set against the sensual, exotic backdrop of
modern Tunisia, renowned Arab
critic-turned-filmmaker Ferid Boughedir's
Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces is a
bittersweet portrait of a boy's sexual
awakening. Noura is an inquisitive
thirteen-year-old whose eyes are opened to his
own sexual desires when he visits the local
Turkish bathhouse with his mother. A sensitive,
comical look at the difficulty of growing up
under the puritanical codes of Islam,
Boughedir's film is also a rich, vibrant portrait of
the Arab neighborhood of Halfaouine, with its
array of colorful and eccentric citizenry from
whom Noura learns the complicated, often
hypocritical ways of adulthood.
English subtitles
