Wednesday 9th June 2021
10:00am, 2:00pm, 5:00pm, 7.30pm
Directed by Mehdi Barsaoui
Darija Arabic & French/subtitles
Drama
96 mins
Is happiness an illusion? The future can seem so bright one moment and then be thrown into turmoil from unexpected quarters.
A Son explores the expression “a matter of life and death” via a suspenseful and emotionally draining tale of reverberating collateral damage. A happy family weekend in southern Tunisia turns into a nightmare when a couple’s entire world comes apart after their 11-year-old son is gravely injured in a terrorist shootout and is in dire need of an organ transplant. Magnifying the tension is the discovery that the husband is not the boy’s biological parent.
Organ donation is a relatively new technology in Tunisia, and the wait list is too long to offer much hope. The tension in the film builds slowly as competing and complex issues and emotions are laid bare.
The film works on several levels: as a drama about morality, as a story on the changing place of women in society and as a political allegory. – Cineuropa.
A quietly powerful triumph from a fresh voice in Arab cinema. – Toby Woollaston, NZ Herald
The evenhanded way in which the script gives equal space to husband and wife is one of the film’s chief satisfactions, and both actors inhabit their roles with a gripping degree of authenticity. – The Hollywood Reporter