How does someone maintain innocence whilst coming into knowledge? Can you be both innocent and knowing? What does a society in which women are truly equal look like, and how is it represented in the cinema?
This film examines those questions, using the character of Noura and the Tunsian society. I thought this film was really interesting as it came from a place I didn't know much about- a place that is unique in its point of view. I can see why this film was the most popular film in Tunsia- it feels authentic to the country.
As a viewer coming entirely from the outside Noura represented how I viewed the film- coming in entirely innocent and my knowledge "coming-of-age" at the end. The film was an awakening, a realization of what an equal society could look like.
Lang's comments on the police state influencing the events of the film and also the country as a whole were useful and true, and also something to think about. The theme of desire as nostalgia rings even truer, considering the eventual invasion of the political. When the knowledge is present, especially in the sexual realm, there's always that desire to go back. You always wonder if you could have done it better, how changing the past and going back to that innocent state of being would change you in the present. Did I make a mistake- should I have done that, sacrificed that innocence? How valuable is innocence? Desire as nostalgia in this film, and also in life, has a lot of significance to me.
Ultimately, this was a valuable lecture and its themes apply to love and desire in a broad sense. The themes of the film ring true to many situations and for that the film became more interesting.
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