THE SILENCES OF THE PALACE Movie Review

Les Silences du Palais

This elegant and quietly powerful debut film from Tunisian director Moufida Tlatli is the story of Alia (Ghalia Lacroix), whose mother is a servant in the palace of the Bey. Her mother's lifelong role has been to serve food and make her body available for the amusement of Tunisia's royal princes. Alia is now an admired and talented singer in a modern but not altogether different Tunisia; as she reflects on her 1960s childhood years spent observing her mother's humiliation, she must come to terms with the tragic, quiet suffering that marked her mother's life and the tradition of bondage that has not yet vanished from her culture. Winner of a special mention at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, The Silences of the Palace is a sensitive, moving, tough-minded film that's a potent piece of social criticism. Woven into the fabric of the tale are a number of exquisite songs, though at least one musical sequence was removed by the film's American distributor before it played in theatres. The original version's running time is 127 minutes.

NEXT STOP … Ramparts of Clay, The Band and the Bracelet, Mahanagar

1994 116m/C FR Ghalia Lacroix, Amel Hedhili, Kamel Fazaa, Hend Sabri, Najia Overghi; D: Moufida Tlatli; W: Moufida Tlatli, Nouri Bouzid; C: Youssef Ben Youssef. VHS CTL