Park City, covered with snow, looks like a world far from Tunis, where Amali Qalti filmed her first feature film “Where The Wind Comes from”, where she played the role of Sundance as part of the international dramatic cinema competition. This realistic journey simulates those of the two main film characters, Alyssa (Aya Balti) and Mahdi (Salim Bakkar), who are legitimized on a wild journey full of events to reach an artistic competition that promises to be the key to leaving their home. A country for life in Europe.
Speak exclusively with diverseThe photographer, who turned into a film director, says that the “Sandans” festival was always the “Her Dream” festival. “When I see the glories of Sandans on the movie poster, I know that I would love the movie, so I couldn’t believe it when I entered.” The first show contains an additional layer of excitement for my hearts: this is the first time that its main representatives have seen snow. “They are almost equally excited about it,” she said.
With permission from films boutique
The story revolves around a girl and a boy aspiring as the best friends, never surrendering to the expectations of their friends and families about romance. The idea came to my generation for the first time in years, even before working on her short films, “Black Mamba” and “Chitana”. “I really wanted to tell a story about friendship between a boy and a girl. She says:” I felt it was a common relationship in my life. ”
The director continues, “From years of adolescence until my early twenties, I was always surrounded by children.” “I have developed an emotional relationship with them and people asked me: Why don’t you dating? Even my father asked me if my friends were my friends and never felt that it was strange. These friends were present with me, and perhaps because men did not talk to each other a lot, it was easier to open up to Close.
Through the movie “From where the wind comes”, my generations have begun to represent a relationship that I had never “watched enough in the cinema”, where you have “this intense intimate relationship that never becomes sexual.” Another basic element for the director is honoring Tunisian youth, which it considers one of the “most interesting in the world”.
“I love this part of life. In the twenties of your life, you feel that you are able to change the world, while in the thirties, you feel more and more that there is nothing you can do. Tunisian youth are very interesting, they are rooted in the Arab and Islamic cultures but also Open mind, so there is this complex opposition. She says: “They love art, and they are the ones who revolution 10 years ago.”
But what was saddened by the director is that every time she was talking to a person in his twenties, from any background, all of them used to say “their dream is to leave” their homeland Tunisia. “They feel that there is no hope and cannot create any kind of future here. It is terrible to see a young man full of life and at the same time full of despair.
However, she did not want her first appearance to be a “dark drama” because whenever she looked around, she saw “smart and funny” people. To achieve this in the best way, my generation decided to make her movie comedy and manipulate the elements of the gender – including the sporadic surreal breaks throughout the movie.
“It is really personal because I am using my imagination to escape anxiety and stress,” she says about the source of inspiration for these series. “I have a different kind of imagination, less poetic, but I wanted this element being present in my movie because I always felt that imagination is something that everyone possesses, to one degree or another. It is also another link between the two characters, their imagination, and adds another layer to their friendship.
With permission from films boutique
Al -Qalati says that this fun and narration challenges the western audience’s expectations about the shape on which the Tunisian movie will appear. “People want to see oriental dance and mosques in our films. I was in Rome with a short pants and one of the audience told me that my movie does not seem Tunisian. What does that mean even? What is the Tunisian movie? What is the Italian or French movie? They love Orientalism and women are fighting and they are suppressed.
Regarding the current moment in Tunisian cinema, especially after Kawthar Ben Haniyeh’s nomination for the Academy Award last year for the movie “Four Daughters” – to become the first Arab woman to be nominated for the Academy Award twice – the oligarchy says she feels “great pride.”
“There is a new wave of directors and I like them all.” “Every year, it seems that we have a movie in Berlin or was. When I joined” Sandans “, I felt that I joined them and I was very proud. We are telling our stories from our point of view, staying away from the expectations of the orientalists. We no longer produce Arabic films only. I’m proud Very this new generation and that I am part of it. ”
“From where the wind comes”, produced by Atlas Vision (Tunisia), and participated in the production of Haute Les Mains Productions (France). The product are the names of Shiboub and Karim Aituna. The participating product is Shadi Abu. Films Boutique deals with international sales.