Streams

Moumen is a young and promising soccer player with a close relationship to his mother, Amel. His father is a former soccer player himself, but struggles with alcoholism and is having trouble living up to the role of supporting parent. Through work, Amel is contacted by a wealthy businessman. She joins him for dinner hoping the man can somehow influence her son’s career.

The man exploits the situation and assaults her, and even though Amel resist, she is sentenced to jail for indecent behavior. The small family is divided, and Moumen is pulled into the dangerous underworld of the Tunisian capital. When Amel is released from jail, she does everything she can to reunite with her son before it is too late.

In an interview about the film, director Mehdi Hmili has expressed his desire to portray the prejudiced treatment of women in society and how “a minor mistake could destroy a woman’s life”. He shines a light on these themes in this tragic, but ultimately gripping, tale of an unbreakable bond between mother and son. Afef Ben Mahmoud is excellent in the role of Amel, and received the award for Best Actor at Cairo Film Festival.

Atli Bjarnason

Director

Mehdi Hmili is a Tunisian filmmaker, born and raised in Tunis. He studied filmmaking at Manouba University in Tunus, and later at a film school in Paris. He made his feature film debut with the drama Thala My Love in 2016.

This film is part of