Le Chant des Mariées

Like her earlier, excellent 'Le Petite Jerusalem', Karin Albou's story of two best teen girlfriends suffering through WWII in Tunis is rich with sensual textures; bodies, fabrics, a powerful sense of place. Albou is one of those directors who uses silence, a look shared, an extreme close up to communicate what most filmmakers rely on dialogue to say.

One girl is Jewish, the other Muslim. Both dream of happy marriages in societies and religious cultures that keep women as objects used by men, while both religious groups are used as puppets and victims used by the Nazi occupiers - if in very different ways.

A deceptively complex film, this story of friendship touches on war, religion, class politics, race, and sexual roles. If I found it a touch less successful than her last film, it may be because she was being so ambitious. But I'll take that kind of ambition in an artist anytime.

I saw this last month at the 2009 Palm Springs International film Festival. This is the second feature film of writer/director/actress Karin Albou who received critical acclaim for her debut film La Petite Jersalem. As as writer and director Albou seems to have a promising career ahead of her as she knows how to put a film together and get the best out of her cast including herself as an actress as she plays the role of Myriam's stern but loving, smart and hard working mother Tita. The film is set in 1942 in German occupied Tunisia as the German's are vying for the support of the Muslim population to be their allies in the promise of independence for Tunisia. 16 year old Nour (Olympe Borval) is a Muslim engaged to her cousin Khaled (Najib Oudghiri). Nour's best friend since their earliest childhood is Myriam (Lizzie Brouchere). Myriam is Jewish and the German occupation has brought understandably hard times and tension for the Jewish Tunisian population. Myriam longs for the love that her friend Nour sees in Khaled but Myriam is betrothed to a wealthy and much older Doctor Raoul (Simon Abkarian) who is being forced to work in sympathy to the Nazi occupation. Photographed by cinematographer Laurent Brunet this is a good film but despite the war setting there is not a lot of war action and the film centers around the relationship of Myriam and Nour and this could be categorized as a chick flick. I liked it though and would give it a 7.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

During WWII, the lifelong friendship between two young women (one Muslim, one Jewish) in Tunisia is tested when the Nazis take over the country. This is a good-looking film with fine performances from Brochere and Boval as the two women, although the characters are not very well developed. While generally engaging, it fails to be compelling, particularly for those not invested in the cultures portrayed here. It also doesn't offer any new insights about the religious themes it explores. It is sensitively directed by Albou, who also plays the mother of one of the young women. There are some surprisingly frank scenes depicting the grooming of Brochere for her wedding night.

Film africain bien sympa. Encore les nazis qui font des dégats et des abus, mais pas de massacres ici. Une histoire de copines juive et musulmane qui dévoile beaucoup des coutumes.

Outstanding movie! Historical accurate - outstanding acting performances! Lizzie Brocheré succeeded in a convincing way, her efforts must have been tremendously exhausting but they bluntly payed off, the actress merits plenty of awards. Olympe Borval performs as the best actresses do. Simon Abkarian impersonates his character with a dept seldom seen on the screen. The script is well written, and one has the impression that it is well researched up to an academic level. Even if one does not like war movies he or she will be more then surprised about the films touch for human experiences and underlying anthropological - sociological study.