As I Open My Eyes

Tunis, the summer of 2010, a few months before the revolution. Farah is eighteen, has just finished school, and her family already sees a doctor in her. Farah has other plans: she sings in a rock band with political lyrics, goes out into the city at night, drinks, falls in love. Her mother Hayet is against all of it. What is behind the objection is not morality but fear; she knows the country and what can happen in it. Leyla Bouzid's first feature has Baya Medhaffer as Farah and Ghalia Ben Ali as her mother. The film shows the Tunis of the months before the revolution together with the shadow the police cast over it. The music is part of the story, not decoration.