Best Tunisian drama movies

In the south of Tunisia, two football fan brothers bump into a donkey lost in the middle of the desert on the border of Algeria. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears.

Twelve-year-old Noura dangles uncertainly in that difficult netherworld between childhood and adulthood. His growing libido has gotten him banned from the women's baths, where his mother took him when he was younger, but he's not yet old enough to participate in grown-up discussions with the men of his Tunisian village. Noura's only real friend is a troublemaker named Salih -- the village political outcast.

Tunisia, summer 2011. The holiday to the South of the country ends in disaster for Fares, Meriem and their 10-year-old son Aziz, when he is accidentally shot in an ambush. His injury will change their lives: Aziz needs a liver transplant, which leads to discovery of a long-buried secret. Will Aziz and the relationship survive?

Among the trees, young women and men working the summer harvest develop new feelings, flirt, try to understand each other, find – and flee – deeper connections.

Habib and his 15 year old son Ahmed from his previous marriage, are brought together by Habib’s worsening state of health. Habib’s political past during the dictatorship in Tunisia is dangerously affecting his present. The roles are reversed, Ahmed has to protect his father and try to keep him safe. Habib and Ahmed find themselves in a chaotic position that neither is prepared for.

Mounir is a reserved and idle night watchman. On a very lonely night, he finds a strange manner of entering the life of Latifa, his pretty neighbour with whom he is secretly in love. The unusual means will turn him into the secret witness of Latifa's agitated life and will lead him to dangerous extremes of passion.

The death of a prince brings a young woman back to the palace where she was born into servitude. The lingering legacy is brought into light from behind frosted windows and velvet curtains.

The Nazi occupation of Tunisia strains the bonds of friendship between a Muslim woman and a Sephardic Jewess who are both preparing for their marriages.

During a clandestine tour in Italy, an interview between an immigrant and two journalists takes an unexpected turn. The disclosed events prove to be dreadful.

Larger-than-life characters populate director Nejib Belkadhi’s spellbinding combination of film noir and magic realism, which follows a downtrodden orphan — now grown but still saddled with a cruel nickname — who has a reversal of fortune and takes on the thugs who control his ghetto.

Salma is a 37 years old paramedic nurse working in private and public hospitals in Tunisia. When her only son, Murad, go to Syria to join the terrorist movement Al-Nusra Front, Salma infiltrate the jihadists with the aim to bring her son back to Tunisia.

A policeman with a violent past meets a small boy with whom he undertakes a fantastic journey.

In a conformist society, Ahmed and Salma, marry for convenience to pursue their passions with secret lovers. "Conditional Desire" delves into identity, love, and authenticity amid societal constraints.

Dali and Mariem are impatiently awaiting the arrival of their first child. On the day of delivery, the doctor tells them that the baby has a rare characteristic. Upset by this news and confronted with his demons, Dali is no longer able to play his role with Mariem and their child.

Meet Amadeus, a charming 50-year-old Italian antique dealer, who finds himself smitten with the stunning Tunisian beauty, Betty (Badra), a woman much his junior. But as their relationship blossoms, a new challenge arises – the in-laws smell opportunity, envisioning a wealthy, doting son-in-law. And an Imam throws a curveball, demanding Amadeus undergo circumcision and convert to Islam. In this cross-cultural clash, will the power of love prevail, or will tradition and family obligations tear the couple apart?

The small south Tunisian village of Al-Malga (literally "The Shelter") is spurred into action when a series of phone calls from the capital announce the impending visit of a prestigious production team from German television in the region. Consequently, the town's cultural committee decides to give a positive image of the village and the country and creates an artificial veneer, substantially camouflaging the reality. Chaos ensues as the committee's sycophantic chairman, an ardent feminist, and a number of other unusual characters disagree on the best course of action.

An 18 year old on the island Djerba, Aicha, is married to Said, who works in Tunis for much of the year. Aicha breaks with tradition and decides to join Said in Tunis, weaving rugs to make money. Said asks that she give him a son, so Aicha lives under the rule of her mother-in-law.

On an island lost between two worlds, Dai, a young Chinese woman, survives alone in a cave, waiting for the baby that swells her womb day after day. Around the harbour which, every day, flurry with the arrival of hundreds of migrants, she searches tirelessly the face of the man she loves, her husband. One, night her wish is to be fulfilled

In southeastern Tunisia, Salem and Halima spend months waiting for news of their son Ahmed, who has been smuggled overseas to Italy.

Nada is a young woman leading a double life. During the daytime she’s quiet and reserved, but after dark she dives into the nightlife of Tunis and picks up men. First, she lets them tell their stories – as she doesn’t speak, she acts as a kind of confidante – then beats the hell out of them. When a new colleague, Noura, arrives at her workplace and Nada finds a mythical knife at the home of one of her victims, events are unleashed over which Nada has less and less control.

In the ensuing days before his wedding bridegroom Hachemi faces both the anxieties of the future and the shadows of the past. His best friend, Farfat, is the topic of street graffiti and local gossip, which calls his manhood into question. This ripples out to affect Hachemi for, unbeknownst to anyone, as apprenticed youths they were molested by Ameur, the local carpenter. Farfat is banished from his father's home and the shared secret between the two friends threatens to undo more than just the wedding, but their very lives.

The Girl from Carthage (also known as La fille de Carthage) is a 1924 Tunisian film directed by Albert Samama Chikly.

Yassine, the son of an authoritarian father and a depressive mother, has managed to maintain a relatively balanced facade throughout his life. It is his powerful crush on Leïla, a classmate, that will finally tip this precarious balance.

In a small, self-sufficient Tunisian fishing village, German developers set up a hotel infrastructure, with the complicity of local councillors. The lives of the villagers are turned upside down.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of contemporary North Africa, this drama follows three women as they navigate the complex interplay between tradition and modernity. Each woman, driven by her own desires for success and meaningful relationships, faces societal pressures and cultural constraints that test their resolve. As their lives unexpectedly intersect, they reveal the shared struggles and resilience needed to overcome the obstacles placed in their path.

Habib and his 15-year-old son, from his previous marriage, are brought together by Habib’s worsening state of health. Habib’s political past during the dictatorship in Tunisia is dangerously affecting his present. The roles are reversed, Ahmed has to protect his father and try to keep him safe. Habib and Ahmed find themselves in a chaotic position that neither is prepared for.

In the turbulent aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, young Samia flees her homeland. She braves hostile seas in the crossing to France, but once there she finds that her struggles have only just begun. With no friends, no family, and — most crucially — no immigration papers, Samia has to figure out how to make a life and a living in a foreign land. She meets a young man, Imed, and soon finds work in the employ of the elegant Leila. But her presence in Leila's middle-class household triggers a shift in its dynamics, and soon Samia is enmeshed in a web of sexual tension.

Hassouna, a Tunisian officer in the French army, is committed to the cause of independence of his country. He transmits information to the independentists activists' networks. Once he discovers a list of Tunisian betrayers, he faces rejection and persecution.

Mamluk is an unassuming, handsome young peasant who happens to have come along just in time to save the king from a fatal trap, and as a reward, the king offers him the amount of land he can mark off by walking around in one day but he must return to the starting point before sunset.

A poor nurse falls in love with the son of one of her wealthy patients. Abandoned by her husband while pregnant, she must fight her husband's wealthy and powerful family in court.

On December 31, 1980, between England and the mainland, two anonymous passengers were fouled by the British and Belgian authorities and found themselves prisoners on board the car ferry connecting the two frontiers.

Nasser is a Tunisian serial killer who committed several murders in the 1980s; he was the country’s last prisoner executed; this film follows his life, psychology, and history.

It's summer in Tunis. Hedi has just missed his baccalaureate for the third time. His father Houcine retired, but must give a last service to his boss Moncef: keep his villa while the latter spends his holidays in France, on the Côte d'Azur. Hedi, whose only desire is to leave the country, will, in spite of himself, follow his parents to the villa. He regains hope when he meets his neighbor Ramla, whom he falls in love with. But the arrival of his brother Raouf, a businessman who lives abroad, will make him discover a society in decomposition ...

Between two evils it is necessary to choose the lesser.

This film explores the impact of the modern world on the traditional male society of the Maghreb. It is a film about men who prefer to live life as an abstract game and the free-spirited woman who changes everything. Said and Youssef have fulfilled a life-long dream by opening a "chess bar" in the middle of the desert. They sit around drinking palm wine, playing board games and composing love poetry to imaginary women. All this changes with the arrival of Sarah, a sexually liberated, uninhibited metisse who easily lures Youssef into an affair. Soon he is dreaming not about chess but about opening a coffee bar in Genoa. The friendship is destroyed, the bar sold. Youssef, dressed in Western clothes, waits to leave with Sarah; will she show up? Said boards a train and sits down next to a Westernized woman bearing a resemblance to Sarah

Anthology film portraying the stories from the collection Sleepless Nights by Ali Douagi.

Since childhood, Qays and Layla have been in love. Qays, being a poet, publicly sings of his love, crying it out joyously far and wide - just the sort of public proclamation which was strictly condemned at the time. Distraught yet fearless, Qays stubbornly proclaims with all the more vigor his love for Layla, who remains entrapped by her own clan.

Youssef, leads a lonely and orderly life. But the chance meeting with an intriguing girl in front of a mysterious house awakens in him the confused images of a past family tragedy.

A documentary filmmaker goes to work on a project about Tunisians who have worked abroad. Many have married French women, and the couples try to adjust to France after many years in Tunisia. The man decides to forego the film in order to address the personal and social concerns of the people trying to cope in their new surroundings. This feature appeared at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.

Zohra, a young girl from Hammam-lif (Tunisia) deals with her parents in imposing a suitor on her even if she loves another. It is one of the first Tunisian films directed by a woman.

Infantryman Jean Froissard is sentenced to two years in Biribi Military Prison in North Africa. He seems to get along, but as incompetence, corruption and sadism of his superiors (which include sexual abuse of the prison inmates) force him and others into rebellion. Court martial ensues ...

Gadeha (12) happens one day to be the victim of a car accident. He undergoes surgery. Penniless, his mother, Borkana, is helped by Malika and Moez, a benevolent couple that offers to pay for the hospital fees and provides the destitute family with a roof. Gadeha meets Oussama, Malika and Moez’s child (11) who is recovering from a kidney transplant. A strong friendship is made between the two boys. But Gadeha finds out haphazardly the secret of his family’s new standard of living. He is devastated.

Pierre, a young man of Brussels, has lost his job. Unbeknowst to Barbara, the woman he lives with, he has become a pickpocket to survive. He works in partnership with a young Tunisian immigrant he meets every Sunday in an abandoned bus where they share the loot of the week. One day, Pierre finds his accomplice dead in their hiding place. Pierre suddenly realizes that he does not know much about his dead friend. Taking possession of his identity papers, Pierre decides to go to Tunisia to find out who his friend actually was.