Beyond each neighboring mountain lies an uncharted continent, harboring the promise of change and a taste of freedom. Rafik, a peaceful family man who spent four years in a Tunisian jail on the threshold of middle age, knows this well. But the very rage that led him to the cause of his sentence – vandalizing his workplace – now grants him a magical power: Rafik believes he can fly! By renewing the conventions of a road movie and with the Dardenne brothers co-producing, an unexpected journey of father and son evolves into an exquisite example of magical socialist realism and, simultaneously, an homage to the strength of one's will. An automatic writing-inspired film that seems to have sprung from the depths of the most luminous subconscious, urging us to expand our definition of the metaphysical. Or in the words of Hamlet: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.”
Behind the Mountains
Les Ordinaires
No physical screenings scheduled. |
| Available at the Agora Market TIFF64. |
- Direction: Mohamed Ben Attia
- Script: Mohamed Ben Attia
- Cinematography: Frédéric Noirhomme
- Editing: Lenka Fillnerova
- Sound: Ludovic Escallier, Quentin Colette, Jean-Stéphane Garbe
- Music: Olivier Marguerit
- Actors: Majd Mastoura, Walid Bouchhioua, Samer Bisharat, Selma Zghidi
- Production: Nomadis Images
- Producers: Dora Bouchoucha, Lina Chaabane
- Co-production: Les Films du Fleuve, Tanit Films, 010 FILMS
- Co-producers: Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Delphine Tomson ,Nadim Cheikhrouha, Giovanni Robbiano, Lorenzo Rapetti, Giovani Giusto, Paolo Maria Spina
- Costumes: Olfa Attouchi
- Production Design: Fatma Madani
- Format: DCP
- Color: Color
- Production Country: Tunisia, Belgium, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
- Production Year: 2023
- Duration: 98'
- Contact: Luxbox
Mohamed Ben Attia
Mohamed Ben Attia was born in Tunis in 1976. He studied audiovisual communication at the University of Valenciennes in France after graduating from the Institut de Hautes Etudes Commerciales (IHEC) in Tunis in 1998. He has directed five short films, Romantisme, Deux Comprimes, Matin et Soir (2004), Kif Lokhrin (Silver Award at FESPACO 2006), Mouja (2008), LOI 76 (2011), and Selma (2013), which was selected in the international competition of Clermont-Ferrand 2014 and won several awards in various festivals. He directed his first feature Inhebek Hedi, in 2016 which wins the Best First Film Award and the Silver Bear Best Actor at the 2016 Berlinale as well as great critic and audience acclaim around the world. The film was released in more than twenty countries. His second feature Weldi (Dear Son) is selected at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes 2018.
Filmography
2004 Romantisme (short)
2006 Like the Others (short)
2008 Mouja (short)
2011 Loi 76 (short doc)
2014 Selma (short)
2016 Hedi
2018 Dear Son
2023 Behind the Mountains
