Tunisia and France / 2016 / 99mins / Comedy / Arabic and French

In Boughedir’s tale of an unlikely hero, young college graduate Aziz, nicknamed “Zizou,” leaves his village on the border of Sahara for the capital in quest of a job. After he becomes a satellite-dish installer, interacting with people from all walks of life, he falls madly in love with a young woman who has ties to a mafia group working closely with the governmental regime. His quest to set her free becomes his reason for living, and he proceeds unconsciously into the growing tide of a revolution about to wash over Tunisia.

Férid Boughedir

Director, critic and film historian Férid Boughedir was born in 1944 in Hammam Lif, Tunisia. A long time critic, one of Africa and the Arab World’s best known, and author of numerous books, Férid Boughedir began by making documentaries about the new cinema coming out of these regions: Caméra d’Afrique and Caméra arabe, both of which were presented in the Official Selection at Cannes. His first fictional work, Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces, was shown at Cannes in 1990 to acclaim from critics and audiences alike and remains to this day the biggest success in Tunisian film. A Summer in La Goulette, in competition in Berlin (1996), also won many prizes. A passionate lover of film, he became Delegate, then Director, of the oldest Pan-African festival, the Carthage Film Festival. He finished Villa Jasmin in 2008, co-produced by France 3 and Arte. His 2016 comedy, Zizou or The Sweet Smell of Spring, won Best Arabic Film at the 2016 Cairo International Film Festival. Learn More