Restored film from Tunisia made in 1975 to be shown this week as part of 16 Days of Activism
Still from Fatma 75 – courtesy of WAC
Fatma 75, a Tunisian semi-fictional film, will be making a showing as part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence this Saturday 24 November.
The film, which was the first to be directed by a woman in Tunisia, was made in 1975, the Year of the Woman by United Nations. The original film, depicting a young woman in university researching historical women and their achievements, was initially banned because of its feminist undertone, and has only recently been restored and subtitled into English.
Dr Stephanie Van De Peer, a researcher at University of Exeter spoke about her discovery of the film and her subsequent research into restoring it for many audiences to watch, saying, “I watched the film and the very almost surreal experience was that the film was obviously in Indian-Arabic, but it was subtitled in Dutch, which is my mother tongue. So that was a massive coincidence that I couldn’t just let slide so I really started focusing on the film for my research and I guess I’ve worked on Fatma 75 for 10 years.”
Dr Stephanie Van De Peer, film researcher
Dr Stephanie will also be taking part in a Q and A after the film screening where members of the public can ask her questions about her research into the film.
This event is organised by Watch-Africa Cymru, an African Film Festival held in Wales, launched in 2013, and showcases different African films, art, and culture. The festival director, Fadhili Maghiya, says “I think the film is more relevant than ever as issues affecting women globally have not changed a lot as we can see on recent campaigns such as #MeToo and other movements to support women equality. I think the film shows how far we have come and the little progress made since it was made.”
Fatma 75 Screening will be held at Cardiff’s Temple of Peace, with free tickets available on Watch-Africa Cymru’s event page, available here.