As I Open My Eyes (2015)

A few months before the revolution in Tunisia, 18 year-old Farah has a passion for life and sings in a political rock band. Her mother, knowing the dangers of Tunisia, wants her to pursue a career as a doctor.

Director:

Leyla Bouzid

Writers:

Leyla Bouzid, Marie-Sophie Chambon

Stars:

Baya Medhaffer, Ghalia Benali, Montassar Ayari

6 wins & 16 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Baya Medhaffer	...	Farah
Ghalia Benali	...	Hayet
Montassar Ayari	...	Borhène
Lassaad Jamoussi	...	Mahmoud
Aymen Omrani	...	Ali
Deena Abdelwahed	...	Inès
Youssef Soltana	...	Ska - le batteur
Marwen Soltana	...	Sami
Najoua Mathouthi	...	Ahlem
Younes Ferhi	...	Moncef
Fethi Akkari	...	Ighal - le poète du bar (as Fathi Akkeri)
Salwa Mohamed Ali	...	Hamida (as Saloua Mohamed)
Kais Klaia	...	Le chauffeur de taxi
Touafik Hammami	...	Le gardien
Wajdi Cherif	...	Le dragueur

Storyline

Tunis, summer 2010, a few months before the Revolution: Farah, 18 years-old, has just graduated and her family already sees her as a future doctor. But she doesn't think the same way. She sings in a political rock band. She has a passion for life, gets drunk, discovers love and her city by night against the will of her mother Hayet, who knows Tunisia and its dangers too well.

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Plot Keywords:

title directed by female | tunisia | 18 year old | traumatic experience | abduction | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Tunisia France Belgium United Arab Emirates Switzerland

Language:

Arabic French

Release Date:

23 December 2015 (France)

Also Known As:

Dieu protège ma fille

Filming Locations:

Tunis, Tunisia

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,189, 11 September 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$30,924, 2 December 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

Blue Monday Productions, Propaganda Production, Hélicotronc

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In a scene when Farah talks with her father in a restaurant in the background we can see Nouri Bouzid who is the father of Layla Bouzid and he is also a famous director in Tunisia.

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Soundtracks

'Ala Hallet 'Aini (As I Open My Eyes)
Vocals by 'Baya Medhaffar' (as Baya Medhaffar)
Music by Khyam Allami
Lyrics By Ghassen Amami
Performed by Joujima (Montassar Ayari (oud), Deena Abdelwahed (keys & electronics), Marwen Soltana (bass) and Youssef Soltana (drums), Deena Abdelwahed (backing vocals))
(p) & © 2016 Nawa Recordings

User Reviews

A lenient story about middle-class revolutionist in Tunis

"As I Open My Eyes" is a story about tense political situation (before Arab Spring) without a political message. It would have been too easy to dramatize this coming-of-age -story with extreme episodes of resistance against Tunisian totalitarianism, just before Jasmine Revolution in 2011. Instead, we follow quite familiar narrative that could happen' anywhere in Europe: young multi-talented woman, Farah has to decide if she wants to become a rock singer or to agree with her mother and go to medial school.

Most of the conflicts in this narrative are inside the family. Only lately do we understand, as well as Farah, that her career as a rock-singer has been protected by a family friend. When the real political situation is exposed and the band has to stop performing, the bigger conflict with the totalitarian police forces is even too familiar from many similar movies. It seems to be very difficult to find the right tone for this kind of situation: to show the psychological effects without exploitation of the subject and female characters. This film is trying to find a compromise between psychological and political realism, but there are too many characters in the way.

The last third part of the film is kind of lame considering what we have seen before, and there are some loose strings in the background story of Farah's parents, but still it's a film that will widen your cultural horizon a lot. The wild and beautiful songs that Farah sings are reason enough to see this movie.