Under the Fig Trees

Erige Sehiri's 2022 Tunisian film follows a single working day in a fig orchard. Young women and men work among the trees for the harvest, and as the work goes on, conversations, flirtations and grievances follow one another. The film takes place almost entirely under the trees. The camera moves between the branches and centres no one; the narrative builds no event and shows instead how the relations shift as the day advances. The performers are non-professional and mostly from the area. Some of the dialogue is improvised; the pressures the women face at work are worked into the conversations rather than announced. Who it's for: those who like North African independent cinema and observational drama. Who it's not for: viewers waiting for an event; the film is the ordinary course of a single day.