Foreign Body

+MN Premiere
+Tunisia

Saturday, 9/29
9:40 p.m.

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Warning: This segment contains sexually explicit content and violence.

FOREIGN BODY

Raja Amari
narrative
92 mins / 2016
Tunisia / France
Arabic and French with English subtitles
Minnesota premiere

After informing on her Islamist brother, Samia (Sarra Hannachi) seeks refuge by illegally immigrating to France just after Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution. With no friends, no family, and no papers, Samia adapts to life in a foreign land. She meets a young man, Imed (Salim Kechiouche); finds work as an assistant to the elegant but mysterious Leila (Hiam Abbass); and is quickly enmeshed in a web of sexual tension. A timely narrative, Foreign Body transcends the media’s typical reductive narratives of forced migration and desperation through close, handheld camera work and offers insights into the story of a young woman. Samia’s story is sometimes ragged and sometimes refined, and Hannachi’s portrayal ranges from stoic to sensual: she is a woman determined to survive at any cost.

Festivals and Awards:
Best Screenplay, RiverRun International Film Festival, US, 2017
Berlin International Film Festival, Germany, 2017
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada, 2016

Raja Amari was born in Tunis. After receiving an MA in French literature from the University of Tunis, she studied cinema at La FEMIS in France. Her first feature film, Red Satin (2002), won numerous awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. Her more recent films, Tunisian Spring (2014) and Foreign Body (2016), narrativize Tunisian life after the events of the Jasmine Revolution.