Rym Ben Messaoud

Young Tunisian Hedi lives an ordered life in which he believes there can be no more surprises. His future will play out as other people have planned, until he meets a young woman named Rim at a hotel in Mahdia Hediand. An ostensibly personal story broadens into a panorama of a society in upheaval, an allegory about breaking away from traditions. And a film about the happiness and pain of freedom.

Leila, mother of Youssef, a 17-year- old boy who was born with special needs, is shocked to find out she is pregnant. She decides to have an abortion without discussing her reasons with her husband. She books herself a room in a private clinic, but things turn against her on the day she wants to take action.

When Mariam, a young Tunisian woman, is raped by police officers after leaving a party, she is propelled into a harrowing night in which she must fight for her rights even though justice lies on the side of her tormentors.

Tunis, winter 2010, a few weeks before the fall of Ben Ali. Loyal friends Fathi, Moha, and Walid stick together to try to survive in a society ruled by corruption, fear, and injustice. Moha, the eldest and a talented musician, destroys himself with alcohol out of rage at not being able to make it big, secretly dreaming of a clandestine passage to Lampedusa. Walid, a smooth talker and handsome guy, is skilled at taking advantage of a system that disgusts him. Fathi, the youngest and most idealistic, naively hopes to get a teaching job through competitive examination and has just fallen in love with the pretty Noura, a liberated young woman who flirts with cyber-dissidence. Then, in a deprived provincial town, the suicide by fire of a young vegetable seller sets Tunisia ablaze. Each of them will see their lives turned upside down in the turmoil of this end of an era...