The Silences of the Palace (1994)

Original title

صمت القصور

Directed by

Moufida Tlatli

Genre

drama film

Country

Tunisia, France

Runtime

2h 07m

Rated

PG

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 25 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young wedding singer returns to the palace where she grew up and reflects on the hidden lives of her mother and the other women who worked there. The film shows how these women navigated sexual and social servitude under French rule in Tunisia.

contemplativepoignantmelancholicintimatereflectivetenseslow-burnvisually lushemotional

What happens

The Silences of the Palace (Arabic: صمت القصور, romanized: ṣamt al-quṣūr) is a 1994 Tunisian film co-written and directed by Moufida Tlatli. The film investigates issues of gender, class and sexuality in the Arab world through the lives of two generations of women at a prince's palace. Seen through the eyes of an attractive young wedding singer, it exposes the sexual and social servitude of a group of women in an elaborate palace during the French Protectorate in Tunisia. Tlatli wrote the film in response to her own mother's sudden severe illness and her subsequent realization of how little she knew about her life. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Champagne amer (1994)
• Three Colours: Red (1994)
• Les hirondelles ne meurent pas à Jerusalem (1994)
• Through the Olive Trees (1994)
• The Light from Dead Stars (1994)
• Clay Dolls (2002)
• Far from the Barbarians (1994)
• Like Two Crocodiles (1994)