Black Medusa

Black Medusa centres around Nada, a young Tunisian woman who is leading a double life. During the day she is a quiet and reserved editor with a hearing impairment, who mainly communicates with others through an app on her phone. At night, however, she heads out on town to hit up guys, lets them rant to her about their life stories, drugs them, and attacks them. One day, Nada gets a new colleague and friend, the graphic designer Noura. Around the same time, she comes across a mysterious knife belonging to one of her victims, and slow, but steadily, she starts losing control over her previously stagnant life.

This is not a film for the faint of heart, but it is certainly worth the watch if you appreciate artistic film and stylistic depictions of violence. In many ways, Black Medusa is a film noir portrait of modern Tunisia, with a clear and grotesque assertion on the ‘metoo’ movement. It provides an unusual insight into Tunisian and Arab women's experience of sexual harassment and discrimination, and the anger it provokes.

Karoline J. Pedersen

This film is part of