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2022 Cannes, Lisbon, Toronto, London, Warsaw, Tokyo, Thessaloniki, Marrakech
2023 Fespaco (Burkino Faso), Minneapolis St Paul, Jeonju (South Korea)
The investigation into a series of unexplained deaths hints to the supernatural, in this thrillingly unconventional police procedural… In the eerie desolation of the half-built Gardens of Carthage, a major development whose construction was halted in the early days of the Tunisian Revolution, the burned body of a caretaker is found amongst the skeletal remains of forgotten buildings. The local police conclude death by self-immolation, but the discovery of a second victim a few days later leads detectives Batal and Fatma to suspect foul play. As the mysteries mount, the two investigators edge their way closer to a terrifying truth. Skilfully exploiting the uncanny quiet of this architectural ghost town (breathtakingly shot by Hazem Berrabah), director Youssef Chebbi’s enigmatic fusion of melancholy neo-noir and the fantastical (think True Detective by way of The X-Files) is a politically tinged enigma, trading in bold provocations, rather than easy answers.
– Michael Blyth, London Film Festival 2022.
Bleak and unnerving supernatural drama Ashkal begins as an abstract study of crumbling gray structures, suddenly interrupted by the roiling, oily flames of a fire. The burning is what brings two detectives – straitlaced but hair-trigger Fatma (Oussaifi) and grizzled, secretive family man Batal (Grayaa) – to the misleadingly named Gardens of Carthage.
The crumbling high-rise mass is an unfinished and abandoned development just outside of Tunis, a modern relic of the 2010 Jasmine Revolution and the removal of elected dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The source of the fire was the body of a security guard, assigned to patrol this skeleton of history, his death a seeming suicide that baffles but doesn’t shock the cops. After all, death by self-immolation is a part of Tunisian political history, the Jasmine Revolution having been instigated by the public suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor abused by the government to irreparable despair. And the one great truth of fire is that it spreads, so just as Bouazizi’s act became a conflagration that engulfed a nation, so that inexplicable death in Ashkal takes more and more seemingly willing victims.
In the script from François-Michel Allegrini and director Youssef Chebbi, the scarcely buried history of the Ben Ali regime is never far from the surface: Batal is an old-school cop who seemingly turned a blind eye to what his colleagues were doing in back rooms (over dinner, he literally delivers the “we were only following orders” line), while Fatma’s own father is heading up the public commission to clean up the police force. Both are outsiders with their own dirty little secrets, and that combination of sliding scales of personal corruption and sinister forces behind real estate deals makes Ashkal the kind of police beat that James Ellroy would recognize. It’s that holy flame, and the question of whether it’s punitive or purgative, that lends this modern noir a more metaphorical glow.
Ashkal is a deeply political film, sweating Tunisia’s recent politics but also serving as a broader allegory for repression, rebellion, and how easily the sins of the past can be repeated. An international co-production reflecting Tunisia’s history and cultural diversity, filtered through composer Thomas Kuratli’s score that melds European orchestral works with North African traditional works and the call to prayer. It’s an undeniable slow burn, with cinematographer Hazem Berrabah constantly placing the characters – themselves often static – within these monolithic structures of reinforced concrete, an indication of the depressingly immutable nature of power. The resolution is purposefully yet powerfully enigmatic, in a fashion that transcends both the police procedural of the opening acts and the details of Tunisian political history. That said, Ashkal may well inspire you beyond the chills contained in this superb supernatural noir. Maybe you’ll learn more about this often-ignored nation. But you’ll definitely be disturbed and fascinated by a chilling depiction of buried crimes.
– Richard Whittaker, 25 August 2023, Austin Chronicle.
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