(Photo: still from film Fatwa)
The Tunisian film Fatwa has won one of three awards in this month’s Cairo International Film Festival’s Arab Horizons competition.
The film won the Saad Eldin Wahba Prize for Best Arab Film; the other two awards -- the Best Arab Film and the Salah Abu Seif Prize (Special Jury Prize) were won by Egypt's Poisonous Roses.
Fatwa follows Brahim Nadhour, a Tunisian living in France, who returns to Tunis to search for the reasons behind his son Marwan's death in an apparent motorcycle accident. Nadhour's investigation reveals many unexpected facts about Marwan, including his connections with a radical Islamist group.
"Fatwa, the Tunisian film directed by Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud, can be considered one of the most important film productions in Tunisia in recent years," Egyptian film critic Mohamed Tarek wrote about the film in the CIFF's daily bulletin.
Tarek applauded the film for its fine cinematic language and an intelligent discussion of the current situation in Tunisia, with all its complexities.
The film stars Ahmed Hafiene, Sarra Hannachi and Ghalia Benali, a well-known Tunisian singer and songwriter.
Prior to its win at CIFF, the film won the Tanit d'Or and Best Actor award (for Hafiene) at the Carthage Film Festival this year.
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