The Silences of the Palace (1994)
Samt el qusur (original title)Reference View | Change View
- 2h 7min
- Drama
- 07 Sep 1994 (France)
- Movie
- 7 wins.
- See more »
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Directed by
| Moufida Tlatli | ||
Written by
| Nouri Bouzid | ... | () |
| Moufida Tlatli | ... | () |
Produced by
| Ahmed Baha Attia | ... | producer (as Ahmed Baha, Eddine Attia) |
| Richard Magnien | ... | producer |
Music by
| Anouar Brahem | ||
Cinematography by
| Youssef Ben Youssef | ||
Editing by
| Camille Cotte | ||
| Karim Hammouda | ||
| Moufida Tlatli | ||
Set Decoration by
| Claude Bennys | ||
Makeup Department
| Fatma Jaziri | ... | makeup artist |
Production Management
| Dora Bouchoucha | ... | production manager (as Dora Bouchoucha Fourati) |
| Tarak Harbi | ... | production manager |
| Joëlle Kondo | ... | production manager |
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
| Mounir Baaziz | ... | assistant director |
| Adel Khoudhaei | ... | assistant director |
Sound Department
| Gérard Rousseau | ... | sound mixer |
| Faouzi Thabet | ... | sound |
Camera and Electrical Department
| Chedli Chaouachi | ... | camera operator |
Additional Crew
| Sylvain Monod | ... | production consultant |
Production Companies
- Canal Horizons (participation)
- Cinétéléfilms
- Mat Films
Distributors
- Amorces Diffusion (1994) (France) (theatrical)
- Mongrel Media (1994) (Canada) (theatrical) (Toronto Film Festival)
- trigon-film (1995) (Switzerland) (theatrical) (subtitled)
- Nachshon Films (1995) (Israel)
- Homescreen (1995) (Netherlands) (VHS)
- Cinemien (1995) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
- Cine Company S.A. (1995) (Spain) (theatrical)
- Capitol Films (1995) (United States) (theatrical) (subtitled)
- Manga Entertainment (1996) (United Kingdom) (VHS)
- Capitol Entertainment (1997) (United States) (VHS)
- Flashstar Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
- absolut MEDIEN (1999) (Germany) (VHS)
- Homescreen (1999) (Netherlands) (VHS)
- trigon-film (2007) (Switzerland) (DVD) (subtitled)
- Espace Sarou (2001) (Japan) (theatrical)
- Homescreen (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
- ICA Projects (1995) (United Kingdom) (theatrical)
- Polfilm (1997) (Sweden) (theatrical)
Special Effects
Other Companies
- Bogard (camera equipment provided by)
- D.C. Audiovisuel (sound transfer)
- Ercidan (titles)
- Kodak (film stock)
- La Princesse (catering)
- Pyral (sound film)
- S. I. S. (sound post-production)
Storyline
| Plot Summary |
Set in 1950s Tunisia, a 25-year-old woman, Alia, returns to her place of birth-a prince's palace in which her mother, Khedija, worked as a house servant and mistress of prince Sid' Ali. She had fled the palace ten years earlier, at which time she spent burying tortured memories of her childhood. In her visit to pay respects for the death of the prince, she wanders through the largely abandoned palace where she is confronted by these memories represented as detailed flashbacks of her childhood. She begins to piece together a narrative about her mother's sexuality and sexual exploitation in a space ordered by gender and class difference, and is re-awakened to her persistent questioning about her father's identity. As she negotiates her past, she also deals with her current relationship to her lover, Lotfi, who has asked her to have another abortion. Her development throughout the film contrasts her awakening to a past of sexual and social servitude which many of the female servants experienced in the palace against her own contested independence fraught with pain, conflict and uncertainty. |
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Did You Know?
| Movie Connections | Featured in Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (2018). See more » |