Product Description

Growing up in the palace at a time when female servants are expected to be sexually available to the men they serve.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32293 in VHS
• Released on: 1997-04-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, Import, Letterboxed, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, French
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Caryn James, New York Times, Friday, Sept. 30, 1994
A universal coming of age story with a feminist twist, a tale that translates effortlessly.

From the Director
For Tunisian filmmaker, Moufida Tlatli, living in silence is a woman's most terrifying condition, yet all too often in parts of the Arab world it has been their most common condition. Tlatli says, The aspect that always hits me the most powerfully is the silence imposed on women in the Arab-Muslim world. They grow up living in doubts as to their own existence and their own past.

From the Back Cover
Set in Tunisia in the 1950's, in the sunset years of its last monarchs, the Beys, is the sumptuous setting for this drama of memory and motherhood, of political and sexual power. Director Moufida Tlatli acutely attunes her film to the desperately undulant rhythms of decadence. Her quietly observant eye records the beauty and the horror of this stifling, now vanished world.

The story is set in the shimmering reflection of royal life before any revolution. Alia, the young servant-girl by Hend Sabri, is misused by her masters and wooed by the rebel, in this moving work of art. The Silences of the Palace is directed with loving attention to the details of women's lives and to the political realities which they survive with courage, comradeship and the resources of their bodies.

Customer Reviews

Movie Making At Its Best
Silences of the Palace is one of the most powerful movies I have seen in the last decade, and film that has great story, excellent acting, a beautiful score and a revelation of a director,Moufida Tlatli.
The fact that this film comes from Tunisia should not be a surprise to anyone, for Tunisian films have over the years, even with little output made their mark on world cinema, and are considered to be the best in Africa and the Arab world, and with Iranian cinema, in the Middle East too.
What is the secret of such a success? Well it is not by chance, for there are many elements that makes Tunisian cinema, a true work of art.
1-The style of the films, the directing and cinematography are heavily influenced by European cinema, and most specifically French, although the subject matter has always been deeply rooted in the local culture and society.
2-There are many themes discussed in Tunisian cinema, but one thread that ties most of the filsm, is the subject of women. Most of the films discuss the problems of women, their roles in the male dominated society,their quest for independance, their fears, aspirations, sexuality, and freedom.(Season of Men, Halfauoine, Silences, Habiba Mysaka, Bent Familia, Satin Rouge etc..) All the female characters are very powerfully written, roles than any hollywood actress would jump at in a second! The fact that women directors are prominent voice in Tunisian cinema gives the treatment of women in the films a sympathetic and supportive voice. Having said that, even male directors like Nouri Bouzid, an excellent talent tackles the problems of women with equal sympathy in films like the masterpiece Bent Familia, a thoughtful insight into the lives of three women seeking independence, one divorced, one single and the other an Algerian refugee and the bond they create to help them through their quest.
3-Tunisian cinema is the only cinema in the whole region that deal with sexuality with much more confidence.While Iranian directors avoid the subject and concentarte masterfully on other social and domestic problems of women, Tunisian directors have no qualms at showing nudity or sexual situations, but this is never gratitious, and always part and parcel and a visual confirmation of the whole plot, hence it comes naturally.
Now to Silences of the Palace..It is a wonderful multi layered story.The bond between a mother who lives all her life like a serf in the service of the male 'Bey' or master, and her daughter..In one poignat scene which reminded me of a more realistic Mr Chance the Gardener, her answer to her daughter's question, why don't you just leave? is 'I was born here and lived here all my live and i am scared to go!!'
The mother's lot is quite sad.She is used as a maid and a sexual object by the aristocratic men in the house, while the daughter whose father remains unknown, with the determination of her mother, finds her way out of serfdom using the gift of her beautiful voice.

There is too the upstairs/Downstrairs, Gosford Park or even the Servant class divide..We see the two separate worlds that of the servants and the aristocrats, living under the same roof, but light years apart.
There is too in the background the events of the Tunisian independence unfolding, via the radio or people visiting.
I will not give more of the plot, for if the film is not adpated from a classic, it should remain obscure and the viewer should watch it with some ignorance to appreciate it more, and discover it for him/herself.
All I will say more is Silences is a wonderful movie experience, a film of rare talent that should have its DVD release, and make it accesible to as many movie lovers as possible.

Beautiful
This is a beautiful, very moving film that gives a (rather sad) view of life for Middle Eastern women, whose options are as limited as the space of the palace within which they are secluded. Particularly poignant is the story of one young girl, who is a gifted singer. Her musical ability provides the movie's gorgeous sountrack.

Movie Making At Its Best
Silences of the Palace is one of the most powerful movies I have seen in the last decade, and film that has great story, excellent acting, a beautiful score and a revelation of a director,Moufida Tlatli.
The fact that this film comes from Tunisia should not be a surprise to anyone, for Tunisian films have over the years, even with little output made their mark on world cinema, and are considered to be the best in Africa and the Arab world, and with Iranian cinema, in the Middle East too.
What is the secret of such a success? Well it is not by chance, for there are many elements that makes Tunisian cinema, a true work of art.
1-The style of the films, the directing and cinematography are heavily influenced by European cinema, and most specifically French, although the subject matter has always been deeply rooted in the local culture and society.
2-There are many themes discussed in Tunisian cinema, but one thread that ties most of the films, is the subject of women. Most of the films discuss the problems of women, their role in the male dominated society,their quest for independence, their fears, aspirations, sexuality, and freedom.(Season of Men, Halfauoine, Silences, Habiba Mysaka, Bent Familia, Satin Rouge etc..) All the female characters are very powerfully written, roles than any Hollywood actress would jump at in a second! The fact that women directors are prominent in Tunisian cinema gives the treatment of women in the films a sympathetic and supportive voice. Having said that, even male directors like Nouri Bouzid, an excellent talent tackles the problems of women with equal sympathy in films like the masterpiece Bent Familia, a thoughtful insight into the lives of three women seeking independence, one divorced, one single and the other an Algerian refugee and the bond they create to help them through their quest.
3-Tunisian cinema is the only cinema in the whole region that deal with sexuality with much more confidence.While Iranian directors avoid the subject and concentarte masterfully on other social and domestic problems of women, Tunisian directors have no qualms about showing nudity or sexual situations, but this is never gratitious, and always part and parcel and a visual confirmation of the whole plot, hence it comes naturally.
Now to Silences of the Palace..It is a wonderful multi layered story.The bond between a mother who lives all her life like a serf in the service of the male 'Bey' or master, and her daughter..In one poignant scene which reminded me of a more realistic Mr Chance the Gardener, her answer to her daughter's question, why don't you just leave? is 'I was born here and lived here all my live and i am scared to go!!!'
The mother's lot is quite sad.She is used as a maid and a sexual object by the aristocratic men in the house, while the daughter whose father remains unknown, with the determination of her mother, finds her way out of serfdom using the gift of her beautiful voice.
There is too the upstairs/Downstrairs, Gosford Park class divide..We see the two separate worlds that of the servants and the aristocrats, living under the same roof, but light years apart.
There is too in the background the events of the Tunisian independence unfolding, via the radio or people visiting.
I will not give more of the plot, for if the film is not adpated from a classic, it should remain obscure and the viewer should watch it with some ignorance to appreciate it more, and discover it for him/herself.
All I will say more is Silences is a wonderful movie experience, a film of rare talent that should have its DVD release, and make it accesible to as many movie lovers as possible.