Screenings
September 03 20:00
DEBATOUN GUESTHOUSE
The Silence of the Shepherd
Tunisia, 2024, 15’
in Arabic w/ Arm․/Eng․ subtitles
Original title: Le silence du berger
Director and Scriptwriter: Marwen Trabelsi
Cinematographer: Marwen Trabelsi
Producer: Hager Lafi
Editor: Marwen Trabelsi
Sound: Oussama Guaidi
Production Company: Libre Production
The film is a social portrayal of the psychological and sociological character of Tunisians manifested through their knives in the city of Nabeul. It dwells on the knife as an adapted tool of a religious ritual, but this tool-ritual can be derailed from its original function of slaughtering sheep to take on another function for fanatical extremists to slaughter the shepherd. The film is a statement; a societal memory of the religious act of sacrifice and its divergence from an animal to a human being.
Marwen Trabelsi is a Tunisian photographer and director. After studying audiovisual culture, he made several experimental films, 4 fiction films and 4 documentaries. His films have won numerous national and international prizes such as the 1st Prize at Douz Doc Days, the 1st Prize for documentary films at the Cam Film festival in Egypt in 2015 and ten prizes for his last feature-length film The Man who Became Museum, released in 2019, and ten prizes for his short fiction film Half Soul.
Filmography
Dans les yeux d’un enfant (fiction, 2007), Maman est une étoile (fiction, 2008), Et pourtant ils respirent (documentaire, 2012), Les Apatrides (documentaire, 2014), L’homme qui est devenu musée (documentaire, 2019), A moitié d’âme (fiction, 2021), Ici Sallambo (fiction, 2022), Le silence du berger (documentaire, 2024), Femmes d’argile (documentaire, 2024).
Awards
Meilleur documentaire international, Al Batinah International Film Festival; Best International Documentary Film, 4th Screen Films Awards; Grand prix au festival International de Sous au Maroc 2024.