As I Open My Eyes
Description
A headstrong singer in an underground band pushes back against the strictures in her life in As I Open My Eyes, Layla Bouzid’s impressive first feature. Set in Tunisia the summer before that country’s 2011 Jasmine Revolution, the drama follows 18-year-old Farah (Baya Medhaffer) as she chafes at her mother’s attempts to control her curfew, her academic future and the time she spends with her group. Farah lives for secret moments with her boyfriend, Borhéne, and their forays into the nightlife of Tunis. Stringing together images of quiet cobblestone alleyways, rowdy “men’s bars” and daily domestic routines, Bouzid’s depiction of Farah’s awakening and her mom’s mounting anxiety feels deeply rooted in female experience under a repressive regime. Newcomer Medhaffer sparkles as Farah, who is radiant onstage and at one point complains, “I’m sick of always having to be careful.” Simultaneously intelligent, rebellious and naive, she’s articulate in the face of oppression without full awareness that the stakes are high—and that government-sanctioned cultural policing is real. Part mother-daughter relationship drama and part political statement, As I Open My Eyes offers a nuanced record of the simmering unrest that propelled Tunisians to overthrow their corrupt government and spark the Arab Spring. —Erin Klenow
Layla Bouzid was born in Tunis and studied literature at the Sorbonne before attending La Fémis film school. Her thesis short, Soubresauts (2011), and the subsequent Zakaria (2013) have screened internationally at various festivals. As I Open My Eyes, her feature debut, won the Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days in 2015.
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/158394248?autoplay=1Film Details
Language French, Arabic
Year 2015
Runtime 102
Country Tunisia/France/Belgium
Director Leyla Bouzid
Producer Sandra da Fonseca, Imed Marzouk, Anthony Rey, Nathalie Mesuret, Bertrand Gore
Writer Leyla Bouzid, Marie-Sophie Chambon
Editor Lilian Corbeille
Cinematographer Sébastien Goepfert
Music Khyam Allami
Cast Baya Medhaffer, Ghalia Benali, Montassar Ayari