The Blade of Tunis

Years ago in Tunis, a man rode around on a motorbike slashing the buttocks of women walking in the street with a razor. He was called the Challat, was never caught, and turned into a legend with no confirmed identity. The film follows a director going out after the revolution to look for him. The subject is not who did it but how the culprit was received. Most of the men interviewed on the street laugh while telling the story, and some say the women had it coming. The real find is not the Challat but the voice that comes out once you start asking. The form is deliberately hybrid. The interviews are real, the investigation is fiction, and the man claiming to be the Challat is an actor. Kaouther Ben Hania uses documentary form to keep the audience asking what is true; the French word for the genre, documenteur, literally contains the word for liar. It is one of the director's first features and the start of the road that leads to Beauty and the Dogs and The Man Who Sold His Skin. It screened in the independent ACID section at Cannes and took prizes at the Namur and Amiens festivals. Who it is for: viewers who like films that blur the line between fiction and documentary. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear answer; the film leaves its own investigation unresolved on purpose.