Pioneering Arab Filmmaker Moufida Tlatli Passes Away At 73

Moufida Tlati: Arab Filmmaker Moufida Tlatli passed away on Sunday, at the age of 73.

Tunisian filmmaker and Minister Moufida Tlatli, hailed as the first Arab woman to direct a feature film, died on Sunday at the age of 73, as stated by the management of the Aswan International Women Film Festival.

The deceased Arab filmmaker is best known for her feature film The Silences of the Palace, released in 1994, based on the themes of exploitation and trauma as experienced by Arab women across generations. Furthermore, Moufida also revealed that the film was inspired by her mother's difficult life.

The movie received widespread acclaim internationally and won a number of international awards, including the Sutherland trophy at the London Film Festival for the 'Original and Imaginative Film of the Year', and was also named as one of Africa’s 10 best films by renowned critic and director Mark Cousins. Her second film, The Season of Men, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.

Her works mostly have feminist undertones, focusing on the lives of Tunisian women and society. Moreover, she mostly worked as an editor in many Tunisian movies like The Trace, Nahla, Aziza as well as in her own directorial projects.

The Arab director and writer was often an esteemed member of the jury panels of a variety of international festivals such as Cannes, the African Film Festival in Milan, the Chicago Film Festival, and also of those held in the Arab region, including Egypt’s Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries and many more.

Following Tunisia's revolution in 2011, Moufida Tlatli was appointed as a Minister of Culture in the country's provisional government.

Feature Image Credits: El Cinema