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Film: “The Silences of the Palace”
February 27, 20257:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe
Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper
documentation. You may only receive one discount per ticket. Sales in
advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m.
Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on
the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour
before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card).
Assigned seats with tickets.
The film will be shown in the original language with subtitles in Spanish.
As part of the “Country Focus: Tunisia” event series, Casa Árabe will be screening this film by Tunisian director Moufida Tlatli in Madrid on Thursday, February 27. Get your ticket now so you don’t miss out.
The screening, which forms part of Casa Árabe’s “Country Focus: Tunisia” event series, organized with the cooperation of the Tunisian Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Tunisian Embassy in Spain, is intended as a tribute to filmmaker Moufida Tlatli (1947-2021).
During the first half of 2025, Casa Árabe will be including several events to showcase some of this North African country’s film treasures. This feature film, with music by Anouar Brahem and a performance by actress Hend Sabry, received the “International Critics” Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1994, as well as the Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Festival, the Golden Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival, the Sutherland Trophy at the British Film Institute and the Golden Tulip at the Istanbul International Film Festival. After that, in September 2012, director and film critic Mark Cousins called it one of Africa’s ten best films.
The Silences of the Palace by Moufida Tlatli (Tunisia, France, 1994, 127 min.)
At the age of 25, young Alia is determined to break free from everything in life: from her job as a wedding singer and her partner, Lotfi, a man with whom she has lived for ten years, but who forces her to get rid of the child she is expecting. Faced with a new situation, she ends up returning to the memories of her childhood, to the palace where she grew up with her mother, a servant girl, and she attempts to remember an unknown father, who could well have been the prince who owned the palace...
Tunisian director Moufida Tatli’s first feature film (which was also the first film in the Arab world directed by a woman) is a fabulous window into the life lived in palaces before Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956, and into the status of women and servitude in the Arab world, along with the healing power of music. In the words of film critic Luis Martínez (El País), “Tunisian filmmaker Tlatli debuts with a beautiful, intense tale of servants and devastated lives. Once again, she proves that the best cinema breathes outside of glamour. A little gem.”
Moufida Tlatli debuted as a director with “The Silences of the Palace” (1994). The film was inspired by her mother’s difficult experiences as an Arab woman. The second film directed by Moufida Tlatli, The Season of Men (2000), was screened in the “Un Certain Regard” section of that year’s Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Prix of the Arab World Institute, as well as prizes at the Namur, Valencia, Turin and Stuttgart film festivals. She later became a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Her third and latest film, Nadia and Sarra (2004), featured Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass in the leading role. Tlatli was appointed Minister of Culture by Tunisia’s interim government in 2011, following the Tunisian Revolution and the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
During the first half of 2025, Casa Árabe will be including several events to showcase some of this North African country’s film treasures. This feature film, with music by Anouar Brahem and a performance by actress Hend Sabry, received the “International Critics” Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1994, as well as the Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Festival, the Golden Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival, the Sutherland Trophy at the British Film Institute and the Golden Tulip at the Istanbul International Film Festival. After that, in September 2012, director and film critic Mark Cousins called it one of Africa’s ten best films.
The Silences of the Palace by Moufida Tlatli (Tunisia, France, 1994, 127 min.)
At the age of 25, young Alia is determined to break free from everything in life: from her job as a wedding singer and her partner, Lotfi, a man with whom she has lived for ten years, but who forces her to get rid of the child she is expecting. Faced with a new situation, she ends up returning to the memories of her childhood, to the palace where she grew up with her mother, a servant girl, and she attempts to remember an unknown father, who could well have been the prince who owned the palace...
Tunisian director Moufida Tatli’s first feature film (which was also the first film in the Arab world directed by a woman) is a fabulous window into the life lived in palaces before Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956, and into the status of women and servitude in the Arab world, along with the healing power of music. In the words of film critic Luis Martínez (El País), “Tunisian filmmaker Tlatli debuts with a beautiful, intense tale of servants and devastated lives. Once again, she proves that the best cinema breathes outside of glamour. A little gem.”
Moufida Tlatli debuted as a director with “The Silences of the Palace” (1994). The film was inspired by her mother’s difficult experiences as an Arab woman. The second film directed by Moufida Tlatli, The Season of Men (2000), was screened in the “Un Certain Regard” section of that year’s Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Prix of the Arab World Institute, as well as prizes at the Namur, Valencia, Turin and Stuttgart film festivals. She later became a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Her third and latest film, Nadia and Sarra (2004), featured Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass in the leading role. Tlatli was appointed Minister of Culture by Tunisia’s interim government in 2011, following the Tunisian Revolution and the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Frame from the film.