Concert Film Sales has secured several regional deals for Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s “Aicha,” ahead of its world premiere in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival. diverse Its first trailer is here.
Buyers include Cineart in the Benelux region, La Aventure Audiovisual in Spain, Discovery in the former Yugoslavia, Jour2fête in France, I Wonder in Italy and Hakke Distribution in Tunisia. Cinewaves has acquired theatrical rights in the MENA region, and Sunnyland Film, a member of the ART Group, has acquired digital sales rights in the MENA region.
The film revolves around Aya, a girl in her late twenties. Aya feels trapped in her life with her parents in southern Tunisia, and sees no prospects for change. One day, the minibus she takes daily between her city and the hotel where she works crashes, leaving her the sole survivor. When she realizes that this could be her chance for a new beginning, she flees to Tunis under a new identity, but everything is quickly put at risk when she becomes the main witness to a police mistake.
“The film deals with the lives of young Tunisians whose dreams are often denied,” the director said in a statement. “It is also a film about new beginnings, second chances, and the multifaceted pressures on Tunisian society, especially on women. Aicha depicts the quest for freedom and the desire to live life to the fullest – a paradox where true freedom for the protagonist can only be achieved through her death.”
“In her pursuit of life, Aisha faces many obstacles: family authority, subservience, misogyny, sexism – and in general the place of women in society. Above all, she faces the corruption and oppression of the police, their omnipresence and control over the population.”
The film stars Fatima Safar, Nidal Saadi, Yasmine Dimassi, and Hala Ayed.
Producers are Habib Attia of Cinetelefilms and Marc Irmer of Dolce Vita Films. Co-producers are Chantal Fisher, Flaminio Zadra, Antoine Khalife and Fayçal Baltayor.
Barsaoui's first feature film, Son, had its world premiere in the Horizons section of the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Best Actor Award for Sami Bouajila. It was distributed in 20 countries and became the first Tunisian film to win a César. Aicha is his second feature film.
