In the 2 weeks I’ve been here, I realize that Tunis is a city that really appreciates the arts. This probably has a lot to do with its colonial past when the French, Italians, Greek and other Europeans occupied the city. I’ve been lucky enough to immerse myself amongst Tunisian film makers, artists, architects and musicians who have introduced me to this side of Tunisian that I wouldn’t have thought existed.
I attended the Carthage Film festival last week and found out that some films were rejected because of controversial topics that brought up social problems that the government does not want to be advertised.
A film maker I spoke to informed me that he is simply bringing awareness to the social problems of Tunisian and not criticizing the government but he was rejected from the festival because of this along with being punished for his actions a few years ago because of controversial documentary topics in the eyes of the government.
For a country that tries to be more liberal in its thinking and open to outside thinking, I am very surprised to see no freedom of speech. Actually let me rephrase that, there is freedom of speech, you just have to filter and sensor what you say for fear of getting in trouble with authorities. I have found that websites such as YouTube and Vimeo are blocked from this country.
This brings up the question of Tunisian identity and what exactly this identity is, if there is one. I’m starting to see a huge difference between the liberal thinkers (who happen to be in the creative field and use their field to project their thinking) and the conservative thinkers who are part of the government (but not necessarily of the older generation and try to hide the problems and project a picture that everything is alright). I plan to discuss this more in my next post.
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