Under the Fig Trees

This mellow drama, set in a picturesque Tunisian orchard, is a beautiful reminder of the importance of friendship and savouring the joys of the everyday.

Developed in collaboration with a group of non-professional actors from Kesra, a fig-growing region of Tunisia, this is a stunning fiction debut from Erige Sehiri. We spend a warm day with a group of students working in the orchards over the course of a summer, learning to appreciate that picking figs is a task that cannot be rushed. The languid pace of their activity allows for time to gossip, flirt, debate and quarrel, as only teenagers do. Their frank and open dialogue, spoken in local dialect, moves between the trees like a gentle summer breeze. Frida Marzouk’s camera captures these interactions in sympathetic close-up and with a profound sense of naturalism, making us feel as if we were there, taking part in the conversation.