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El Hara

A lyrical drift through the Tunis neighbourhood its Jewish residents left behind.

2017 · 16 min · Short documentary · Tunisia, France, USA

For over 700 years, thousands of Jews lived in El Hara of Tunis. Albert Memmi grew up here. As a Tunisian Jew, he struggled to find his place between the European colonizers and the Muslim colonized. Since then, the neighborhood’s Jewish residents have moved on, but Memmi’s memories still dwell here.

EL HARA visually drifts through this neighborhood 75 years after his departure, weaving together his lucid reflections on the residual effects of colonialism, domination, and emigration.

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The trailer

A frame from El Hara

“In a lyrically captivating journey into Tunis’ old Jewish quarter, El Hara explores the present-day echoes of the departure of its historical inhabitants in the wake of colonial and national upheavals.”

Ella Shohat, New York University

“By evoking the ambivalent emotions surrounding Jewish dislocation from Arab and Muslim spaces, it subtly touches upon the scars of rupture and loss.”

Ella Shohat, author of Taboo Memories and Diasporic Voices

Stills

From the film

Credits

Who made it

A film by

Margaux Fitoussi

Mo Scarpelli

Director

With

Albert Memmi

Producers

Margaux Fitoussi

Cinematographer

Mo Scarpelli

Editor

Iva Radivojevik

Mo Scarpelli

A Rake Films production

18 selections

Festivals and screenings

New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center

Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme

Paris

Dar Ben Achour

bibliothèque de la Médina de Tunis

Toronto Jewish Film Festival

UK Jewish Film Festival

Washington Jewish Film Festival

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Sephardic Jewish Film Festival

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