Ashkal premiered at Cannes as part of the director’s fortnight from director/co-writer Youssef Chebbi (he shares writing credit with François-Michel Allegrini). The film’s set in the Gardens of Carthage, a development that was stopped during the revolution but has since begun again. Officers Fatma (played by Fatma Oussaifi) and Batal (played by Mohamed Grayaâ) are called to the site when the remains of a worker are discovered burned. It doesn’t take long to discover that police corruption runs rampant, and Fatma is often alone on her mission to seek out the truth, having alienated herself from the other officers besides Batal, but can she even trust Batal?
Fatma walks by some graffiti in the Gardens of Carthage that simply reads: ACAB. In English-language parlance this is an acronym for All Cops Are Bad. Since the set design in the film is so precise, with everything down to the cracks on walls perfectly composed in shots, this does not seem like a coincidence.
What initially appears to be a police procedural film that will be touching upon political and police corruption in Tunis (the capital of Tunisia), quickly unfolds into something more. Because the person they are after appears to have an inhuman hold on people, drawing them in to light themselves on fire.
When the burnings begin, the officers (minus Fatma) want to bury the case, afraid they will make a martyr out of them. It isn’t until one of their own is killed that they show any real interest in solving the case and finding who is burning people.
The film’s visuals are its greatest strength. The way it builds on the crumbling infrastructure of the part of the city the film focuses on but also how just because it’s imperfect/incomplete/fractured doesn’t mean it loses functionality. Whether it’s getting food from a literal hole in a wall, or Fatma looking at things through the cracked screen of her phone, life doesn’t stop just because something’s broken… which unfortunately also applies to their government and police.
I think there are two main ways to view the film and it all depends on the perspective of the viewer. The first is as examining the cost of the revolution and questioning whether it was worth it if they’re just going to be covering up the same things and dealing with the same kind of corruption. The second way is that the burning is meant to be viewed as a metaphor for a desire to destroy it all and start fresh without the baggage of the past.
There is a scene where Fatma is looking for clues in video footage of people self-immolating, and she watches a series of videos of people on fire. I found that difficult to watch, but even including that scene, the film chose not to show much visually disturbing content. In the opening scene, the examination of the body was done in a wide shot. That established a precedence that was maintained throughout the film.
Ashkal recently screened at the 2nd annual Red Sea International Film Festival.
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