The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), founded in 1972, is one of the most important film festivals in Europe. The festival presents a wide selection of independent, innovative and experimental cinema as well as exhibitions of contemporary art, video and new media. This year, the program of the 50th edition of the festival is divided into two parts. The first part takes place online between February 1st to 7th.
Youssef Chebbi, artist and film director in residency at the Cité internationale des arts, presents the film Black Medusa that he co-directed with Ismaël. This 96-minute feature film entered in competition for the Tiger Award.
Nada, the main character of the film is a young woman leading a double life. During the daytime she’s quiet and reserved, but after dark she dives into the nightlife of Tunis and picks up men… When a new colleague, Noura, arrives at her workplace and Nada finds a mythical knife at the home of one of her victims, events are unleashed over which Nada has less and less control.
Black Medusa is a contemporary reinterpretation of the Medusa myth in the #MeToo era through the cinema. It is also both the portrait of a young woman in post-revolutionary Tunisia and the portrait of the city Tunis. The directors sketch a portrait of this city that combines cold, faceless office buildings with exuberant night life. Above all, they offer us a unique, innovative view of contemporary Tunisia. Using Nada’s double life of monotony and violence as a metaphor, the film explores the more underlying concerns and sorrows of a generation.
During the nine nights in this story, the directors switch genres with ease: from a film noir featuring a mysterious femme fatale to an Italian giallo with a serial killer on the prowl, to even a sprinkling of fantasy. The striking Black Medusa consciously breaks with the stylistic elements usual in North African cinema in the same way as Nada breaks the rules of society in order to liberate herself.
Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia) is recipient of the Cité internationale des arts Writing Committee.