8/10
Recommended viewing, like a documentary of a road trip
10 October 2004
In Australia, the film's title is Bent Keltoum. In the contemporary world of Middle-Eastern fear and terrorism, things like class and sexism have taken a back-seat. In this film though, the main character, whilst leaving Belgium for Tunisia in her quest to find her birth mother and the truth behind her adoption, she finds herself struggling to cope in this foreign society. If the desolate and harsh mountains weren't enough to end her quest prematurely, she often encountered other surprising situations. Sexist lore, from her small isolated birth-village, neighboring towns, and even "Westernised" tourist meccas, constantly demean the value of women, as far as current Western values are concerned. The main character struggles with this concept throughout the film. True to "road trip" movies, her journey takes on unforeseeable twists, right to the end. This makes it entertaining, but also the whites of your eyes will show as you are surprised and disgusted with the sexist and cultural damnation of women in Tunisia - and I am a guy! This movie played late-night on television after midnight, but kept me glued to the very end, and I think you, especially if you are a young determined woman, will surely be too.
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