My Father Killed Bourguiba
Spring Grants 2021 - Development Stage
Fatma Riahi / Feature Documentary / Tunisia, Qatar / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Documentary
Synopsis
This film depicts the journey of director Fatma Riahi, in search of her father’s story. A search that begins 15 years after his death and 33 years after his decision to be a part of a group that planned to overthrow the Tunisian regime of president Bourguiba in a military coup. Her father’s dream of change turned their family and personal life upside down, and Fatma has since been beset by a multitude of increasingly pressing questions. A mother in her thirties herself, she is now trying to understand her father’s choices at the same age and their impact on the little girl she was then and the woman she has become. This poetic, political and intimate story opens the memory box, flips through her father’s notebooks and gives voice to his friends’ testimonies. By using 2D animation, Fatma will recall the drawings she used to draw for and with her father. So many memories, images and stories to heal wounds, look back on what happened to him, her, the family and Tunisia and many others in the same situation—all the ones involved in struggles and conflicts they did not choose.
Credits
- Director
- Fatma Riahi
- Screenwriter
- Fatma Riahi
- Producer
- Erige Sehiri
About the Director
Fatma Riahi is a Tunisian producer and filmmaker. She joined the production unit at Al-Jazeera Documentary Channel in May 2011 as a producer and commissioning editor, producing a number of documentaries from all around the world and contributing to their development into ready-to-broadcast films. The essence of Al Jazeera Documentary Channel is to promote documentary culture in the Arabic language, to nurture its creators in the industry worldwide, and to seek real partnerships with filmmakers and broadcasters, being the first of its kind in the Arabic-speaking world.