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Khaled Ghorbal's first full-length feature is a fascinating glimpse into a culture where women are governed by the paternalistic traditions of their fathers and husbands.
When a visiting cousin rapes 17-year-old Fatma (Jendoubi), she decides to keep silent about her ordeal. In a culture where women are expected to be virgins until marriage, she's ashamed to tell her family the truth about what's happened. But of course, the secret can't be kept forever and so, after graduating from college and becoming a schoolteacher in a rural village, she's forced into an impossible situation. The local doctor, Aziz (Aoum) wants to marry her, but that means her past will finally come out.
Desperate to retain her sense of self-esteem, Fatma's plight is harrowing to watch, and highlights the way she's been taught to absorb the guilt and shame that her cousin's violent actions have created. Fatma is even willing to have an operation to reverse the physical damage - a supposedly simple technique involving only a few stitches - but one that threatens to be as much of an invasion as the rape.
What makes "Fatma" so fascinating is the way in which Ghorbal uses the heroine's situation to offer us a far wider view of Tunisian society. Instead of simply focussing on the negative aspects of the culture, Ghorbal highlights the ways in which these women form support networks across families and friends.
It's a strategy designed to remind us that a whole section of society shouldn't be viewed as one-dimensional victims and encourages us to recognize their very real potential for contributing to the culture that unthinkingly oppresses them.
