Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Arabic - 100 min
Feature Narrative
Total Budget
€ 367,422
Confirmed Financing
€ 110,000
Confirmed Financial Partner
-Akka Films
-Maneki Films
Contact
heniaproduction@gmail.com
+21694579363
Amongst the trees, young women and men are working in the fields, collecting the summer harvest, and developing new feelings, while they flirt, try to understand each other, and find - and flee from deeper connections.
For Melek, Sana, Fidé and Meriem, long days of work in the fields are a way to be together and escape the monotony of their lives in the countryside. They are always finding ways to have fun, sometimes at the expense of others. When they create trouble - a broken branch or damaged fig - they know a generous smile will get them off the hook with Saber, the youngest of the overseers. But it’s not so easy with the elders.
In this vast orchard, Saber is in charge, deciding who works and for what price. He uses his power to buy respect and get close - sometimes uncomfortably close - to younger women, especially Melek. From dawn to dusk, the older workers keep note of the happenings around them, picking up on every story, argument, complaint, and glances shared under the trees.
In my previous film, Railway Men, I transformed a journalistic investigation into a tragicomedy about the daily life of Tunisian railway workers. Combining political and poetic dimensions, unraveling endearing personalities, and taking a sincere and empathetic look at personal stories are all essential components of my treatment of films. In this film, I show the relationship between two groups of women - young, seasonal workers and the older, permanent workers - their discussions, their secrets, what separates them, what brings them together, and what they undergo together. Reflecting this reality, the film also serves as a sort of rebuke of the status quo for these women. From an initially intellectual approach, I realize that my work is moving towards an intimate, sensory experience by showing, the breaking of a branch, the humiliations and arguments, the moments of respite in the shade, the hands that graze each other, the group meals, the long awaited moment of the paycheck. By giving the women the opportunity to live one final day of work in the image, in the unknowing of the drama to come, I want to reveal how "life is worth nothing, but nothing is worth life".
Given the unorthodox approach to the development of Under the Fig Trees, which isn’t anchored to a classic screenplay, we had therefore not been able to apply for development funds, for which Henia Production has fully assumed the cost and responsibility, bringing together financial investment, sponsors, family credit and equity investments.
Totally seduced by the first images, and in solidarity with Erige's commitment, Akka Films and Maneki Films decided to co-produce Under the Fig Trees. We decided to invest in this film and appreciate Erige’s impulse to create and the urgency that mobilized her.
We are also very impressed by the gesture that the shooting of this film represents. Erige was able to attract an incredible pool of talent, both on screen and at her side in the directing. She has been able to adapt to formidable economic but also human and artistic constraints. One can undeniably see the strength of these efforts in the result. Week after week, a film is emerging from the editing bench that is deeply rooted in its cinematic territory. Raw and rough in form, it is also gentle and generous as it releases, in the almost chemical sense of the word, its characters.
Erige Sehiri - Henia Production
2021: Under the Fig Trees by Erige Sehiri
2020: The Disqualified by Hamza Ouni
2018: Railway Men by Erige Sehiri
2012: My Father’s Facebook
Palmyre Badinier - Akka Films
2021: A Thousand Fires by Saeed Taji Farouky
2021: L’étincelle by Antoine Harari and Valeria Mazzucchi
2020: Maisonneuve, à l'école du vivreensemble by Nicolas Wadimoff and Emmanuelle Walter
2019: Maria Cobra Preta by Erika Nieva da Cunha
2018: L’Apollon de Gaza by Nicolas Wadimoff
2018: Railway Men by Erige Sehiri
2017: Ghost Hunting by Rae Andoni
2014: Spartans by Nicolas Wadimoff
2012: A Respectable Family by Massoud Bakhshi
2012: Operation Libertad Nicolas Wadimoff
2009: Buried Secrets by Raja Amari
Didar Domehri - Maneki Films
2020: Under the Stars of Paris by Claus Drexel
2018: Girls of the Sun by Eva Husson
2017: The Summit by Santiago Mitre
2015: Degradé by Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser
2012: Seven Days in Havana by Laurent
Cantet and Benicio Del Toro