Machtat

Documentary, director: Sonia Ben Slama, Lebanon/Tunisia/France/Qatar, 2023, 82 min., Arab. with En. ST

Followed by a Film Talk with Sonia Ben Slama.

Fatma and her two daughters, Najeh and Waffeh, live in Bir Beranek, Mahdia, Tunisia. As “machtat”, traditional wedding musicians, they travel from celebration to celebration during the summer. Music accompanies them beyond the wedding season, into a challenging everyday life marked by personal struggles against social conventions. Najeh, who is divorced, is searching for a husband to escape the authority of her brothers, while Waffeh tries to break free from a violent marriage. Meanwhile, Fatma, their mother, prays and mediates between her two daughters, holding onto hope for brighter days. Sonia Ben Slama intimately captures the lives of the three women, approaching their stories with profound respect, while offering an insider’s view into Tunisian culture and traditions. Machtat, premiered in the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival and the competition section of the 2023 edition of Visions du réel.

In cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.