Films in production or post-production
MOTHERHOOD
Synopsis
Aicha, who has the gift of prophetic dreams, lives in an isolated village in the north of Tunisia with her husband, Brahim, and their youngest son, Adam. The family lives in anguish after the departure of their elder sons, Mehdi and Amine, to the violent embrace of war. Months later, Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a mysterious and pregnant wife named Reem. Their arrival opens old wounds and a darkness that threatens to consume the entire village.
Vincent Gonneville
Maxime Mathis, Meryam Joobeur, Basile Belkhiri
Peter Venne
Salha Nasraoui, Mohamed Grayaa, Malek Mechergui, Chaker Mechergui, Rayne Mechergui, Adam Bessa, Dea Liane
Instinct Bleu (Tunisia)
Sarra Ben Hassen
sarra@instinctbleu.com
Tanit Films (France)
Nadim Cheikhrouha
nadim.cheikhrouha@gmail.com
Midi La Nuit (Canada)
Maria Gracia-Turgeon
maria@midilanuit.com
Annick Blanc
annick@midilanuit.com
Luxbox (France)
Fiorella Moretti
fiorella@luxboxfilms.com
Director’s statement
Aicha and Brahim’s lives are completely changed after their elder sons depart to go to war. Having lived their lives solely for their children, the couple find themselves groundless ast they try to make sense of their new reality. Motherhood is a mediation on a universal question: ‘Who do our lives belong to?’
Biographies
Meryam Joobeur is a Tunisian-Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal. Her short films Gods, Weeds and Revolutions (2013) and Born in the Maelstrom (2017) have been screened at dozens of national and international festivals. Her short Brotherhood (2018) won more than 75 international prizes, screened in more than 150 festivals, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. Joobeur is an alumna of the TIFF Filmmaker Lab, the Med Film Factory, the Rawi Screenwriters Lab, Berlinale Talents, and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Instinct Bleu is a Tunisia-based film company founded in 2018 by producer Sarra Ben Hassen. The company aims to employ EAVE member Ben Hassen’s 20 years of experience in the Tunisian film industry to guide the new generation of Arab and African filmmakers. Instinct Bleu is currently developing two feature-length documentaries by Fatma Riahi and Nicolo Bellotto, in addition to the animated feature film Between Heaven and Earth by Nadia Raïs. Meryam Joobeur’s Motherhood (post-production) is Ben Hassen’s first live-action feature production.
€1 400 000
€1 250 000
Ministry of Culture Tunisia, Sodec, Telefilm Canada, CNC, Eurimages, DFI, Sorfond, OIF, Sundance lab
March—April 2022, Sejnane and Louka (Bizerte, Tunisia)
May 2024
