Couscous, Seeds of Dignity (2017, 57 min), written and directed by Habib Ayeb 

Wednesday, May 22 

5:30 – 7:00 pm 

This documentary focuses on the political, social, economic, and ecological conditions of food production and demonstrates how couscous is in fact at the heart of the issue of individual and collective human dignity as well as Tunisians’ local and national food independence and sovereignty. 

> About the filmmaker

Habib Ayeb is a geographer, researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Paris 8 in Saint Denis, France. A specialist in social geography, his research areas cover issues related to food sovereignty, environment, peasant issues, climate change, marginality and poverty, social change, and the role of the environment in the development of food security. Ayeb’s research areas are mainly focused on Tunisia and the whole of North Africa. His latest major publication is the book with Professor Ray Bush of the University of Leeds (UK) titled Food Insecurity and Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. Agrarian Questions in Egypt and Tunisia (Anthem Press, London 2019). His documentary films include Om-Layoun (2021 - on water issues), Couscous: Seeds of Dignity (2017 - on food sovereignty), Fellahin (2014 - on small farmers’ resistance), Gabes Labess (2014 - on the environment) and Green Mirages (2012 - on development models and impoverishment). Ayeb is also founder member (2017) of the Observatory of Food Sovereignty and Environment (OSAE) in Tunis.  

Golden Horseshoes (1989, 105 min), written and directed by Nouri Bouzid

Thursday, May 23 

6:00 – 7:45pm 

Youssef Soltane, a 45-year-old Tunisian intellectual, is the product of a generation that lived the era of euphoria and great ideologies in the sixties, and their subsequent failure. He was incarcerated and tortured for his political opinions. Furthermore, his relationship with Zineb, a young, beautiful bourgeois, only brings him more trouble. During one long winter night, Youssef wanders in search of an emotional haven, prey to all the questions that flood his memory. 

> About the filmmaker

Nouri Bouzid is a Tunisian film director and screenwriter. He directed eight feature films between 1986 and 2019. His directorial debut Man of Ashes was screened in the Un Certain Regard section the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. Three years later, his film Golden Horseshoes was screened in the same section at the 1989 festival. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought for the year 2007 in Berlin. 

Natureza Morta / Still Life (2005, 72 min), written and directed by Susana de Sousa Dias 

Friday, May 24

6:00 – 8:00pm 

Within an image, another one is always hiding. Using only archive footage and without words, Still Life aims to rediscover and delve into the opacity of images made during the 48 years (1926-1974) of Portuguese dictatorship (news, war footage, propaganda documentaries, and photos of political prisoners) in order to foster new interpretations. 

 > About the filmmaker

Susana de Sousa Dias’ work explores the dialectic between history and memory, questioning regimes of visibility, with a focus on the archive. Her work has been shown in art exhibitions and film festivals around the world such as Berlinale, IDFA, BAFICI, Pacific Film Archive, Harvard Film Archive, Flaherty, Documenta Kassel-Athens (Keimena Film Program), Arsenal Institute for Film and Videoart, and Contemporary National Museum of Art - Chiado. She was awarded the Grand Prix Cinéma du Réel and the FIPRESCI Award for her film 48, among other prizes. In 2012 she created a female collective that ran the Lisbon documentary film festival Doclisboa for two editions, creating new sections such as Cinema of Urgency and Passages (Documentary and Contemporary Art). She has been awarded fellowships from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program (2023) and the MacDowell (2022). She teaches at the Fine Arts Faculty, University of Lisbon.