Filth

Under the Ben Ali dictatorship in Tunisia, on October 7, 1991, a man was abducted, tortured in prison, and eventually killed for allegedly belonging to an Islamist movement. Unaware of her son’s death, Kamal Matmati’s mother would still go above and beyond for years, trying to reach him with letters and clean clothes. Thirty years later, a trial is held addressing Matmati’s death at the hands of the Ben Ali regime. The mother is asking for her son’s corpse so they can give him a proper burial. Matmati’s voice, who speaks to us posthumously, raises a discussion about the manipulated collective history that serves only the oppressors’ agenda.

While grazing their herd in the mountains, two teenagers are attacked. Nizar, 16, is killed, while Ashraf, 14, has to take a message back to his family.

The 27 years old Nozha comes home with a sense of failure and despair following a long absence after marrying against her family's will.

While driving along a road in the Tunisian desert in an old battered van on their way to market to sell their sheep, an old man and his grandson are stopped by two policemen. In order to be allowed to leave, they have to accept a strange and unusual deal.

Zeineb, Elyssa and Houssine, a trio unlikely to ever meet, see their fates cross paths on the night of January 14, the historic date when Ben Ali fled and the Tunisian revolution transformed the face of the nation. The individual lives of these three characters represent the frustrations, challenges, hopes and dreams of the entire country, with their tragic encounter proving to be one that will bind them together for life.

Imed, a young father, finding himself alone for a few days with his five year old son due to his wife’s business trip, will have to confront his deepest fear.