QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM MALTA
A[/drpcap]lyssa (Eva Bellagha) is a fiery and loud young woman desperate to move to Europe. She lives with her doting mom and her sweet little sister in a small Tunisian town. She is best friends with Mehdi (Slim Baccar), a far more introspective man of roughly the same age. His favourite hobby is drawing, and he’s notably talented at it. He shares with his friend the desire to leave their native Tunisia. Alyssa’s mum dismisses their ambitions: “you’re just two daydreamers”. The sharp-tongued, resolute daughter instantly retorts: “if we can’t dream, then what’s left for us?”.
Alyssa is far more confident and pro-active than Mehdi. She mulls tricking immigration authorities in Europe by pretending to be Italian: “I’m Monica from Rome”. Mehdi isn’t too confident in her abilities: “you’re more like Monia from the ‘hood”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is Alyssa that takes Mehdi’s drawing abilities seriously, and decides that the two should showcase his latest creation – a large picture of Alyssa with her head cracked open and beautiful dreams flowing out – at an international competition in Djerba. The prize is a ticket to Germany, which would allow the two friends to fulfil their biggest ambition: reaching the Old Continent. Alyssa is not entirely self-driven. She has vicarious ambitions for her much-cherished and old friend.
But there is one tiny little problem: Alyssa and Mehdi have zero money, and Djerba isn’t quite around the corner. Their only valuable possession is a half-smoked hash stone. They attempt to haggle a shuttle ride, but the drivers happen to be on strike. Alyssa attempts to borrow a car from a powerful businessman, but the price is way too high: he wants to marry her. So she steals his vehicle instead, and the two friends embark on a road trip, with the drawing safely stored in the back. The journey is predictably bumpy, with multiple crashes, punches and black eyes. Our protagonists remain undaunted, particularly after Mehdi becomes infected with Alyssa’s contagious sense of determination. It is the male protagonist who wreaks havoc in one of the film’s most crucial and funniest scenes, in the movie’s final quarter of an hour.
Despite their profound connection, it is friendship that prevails. There is a not a hint of romance, even after Alyssa pretends to be his wife (in one of her many clever tricks in the pursuit of Djerba). One would hazard a guess that this is due to the country’s strict censors, until a very brief – and yet very graphic – homosexual interaction dispels such possibility. It seems that writer and director Amel Guellaty indeed wanted to highlight the values opposite-sex friendship. This is very rare in film, as most creators opt for either brotherhood or sorority, forgetting that a man and a woman can connect in multiple ways (without necessarily joining different parts of their anatomy).
Sexism shows its ugly face multiple times, from countless marriage proposals to male thugs seeking to punish a “morally twisted” Alyssa. Even the authorities are prepared to patronise the headstrong woman: a police officer tells her to ““dress properly if you don’t want to be assaulted”, a very familiar victim-blame tactic.
Despite not being marketed as such, this is a film aimed primarily at young film lovers. The Tunisian indie soundtrack – a blend of emo and Arab beats – is pervasive, specially in the first half of the film. It doesn’t work entirely. The insistence on cheesy tunes hinders profound character development. Confusingly, the characters dance to both diegetic and non-diegetic music. It’s as if the scribe and helmer wished to embrace the musical genre, and then abruptly changed her mind. This is combined with CGI-generated visuals: a colourful bird, a rain of petals inside the classroom, a climbing plant wrapping itself around Alyssa’s arm, pink smoke, and more. It feels sweet and adolescent, if also a tad trite,
Where The Wind Comes From just premiered in the 3rd Mediterrane Film Festival, in Malta.
