03/11/2023 - The second feature film by the director of the multi award-winning A Son is produced by Dolce Vita Films and Cinétéléfilms, and sold by The Party Film Sales

Since 7 October, Mehdi M Barsaoui has been filming Aïcha, his second feature film after the multi award-winning A Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehdi M Barsaoui and Sami B…
film profile] (for which Sami Bouajila had won a Best Actor award in Venice Orizzonti in 2019 and the 2021 César and Lumière awards for Best Actor). Standing out in the cast are Fatma Sfar, Yasmine Dimassi and Nidhal Saadi.

Written by the director, the script centres on Aya who is stuck in a dull life with no prospects in Tozeur, in southern Tunisia. The sole survivor of an accident, she decides to disappear and reinvent her life in Tunis. But her new identity is compromised when she becomes the main witness to a police blunder.

Produced by Marc Irmer for the Paris-based company Dolce Vita Films and by Habib Attia for Tunisia’s Cinétéléfilms, Aïcha will have French company  13 Productions (Chantal Fischer) as executive co-producer. Also in co-production is Italian company Dorje Film (Flaminio Zadra). Pre-bought by ZDF Arte, the feature film is also supported by Eurimages, the Red Sea Fund, the CNC’s and the Institut français’s Aide aux Cinémas du Monde fund, the French-Tunisian film co-production fund, Tunisia’s Ministry of Culture, Italy's Ministry of Culture, the Images de la Francophonie fund, the Doha Film Institute, the South Region (Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur), Aix-Marseille-Provence and the AFAC.

The 40 days of filming (which will conclude on 25 November) take place in Tunisia (in Tozeur and Tunis) with Antoine Héberlé (nominated for the 2017 Lumière award in his category for A Woman's Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Stéphane Brizé
film profile] and winner of the Vulcan award in Cannes in 2013 for Grigris [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) as director of photography. French distribution will be handled by Jour2Fête and international sales by The Party Film Sales (with A.R.T. owning the digital rights for the MENA region).

For the record, Dolce Vita Films recently co-produced Chicken for Linda! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach (unveiled in Cannes’ ACID section and winner in June in Annecy) and Goodbye Julia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mohamed Kordofani
film profile] by Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani (also discovered in Cannes, in Un Certain Regard).

(Translated from French)