Screenings of “As I Open My Eyes” at Vancouver International Film Festival

Tunis, summer 2010. The Jasmine Revolution is still a few months in the future. Eighteen-year-old Farah (Baya Medhaffer), the lead singer in a political rock band, and her musician friends are making the Ben Ali government uneasy. Farah’s family thinks she should prepare to study medicine but she tends to disagree. She has a passion for life and is the midst of discovering love and the beauty of her city by night. She does all of this against the will of her mother Hayet, who knows the dangers of Tunisia all too well.

• Director Leyla Bouzid
• Country of Origin:Tunisia/France/Belgium/United Arab Emirates
• Year:2015
• Running Time:102 mins
• Cast: Baya Medhaffer, Ghalia Benali, Montassar Ayari, Aymen Omrani, Lassaad Jamoussi, Deena Abdelwahed

Another multiple award-winner from the resurgent Tunisian cinema, As I Open My Eyes marks the feature debut of writer-director Leyla Bouzid, the daughter of filmmaking great Nouri Bouzid (Man of Ashes, Bezness).

“It seemed important to me to say that there are also young people who are driven by life, to give them a voice via Farah, show that she is muzzled by a terror that emanates from the system. Terrorism is not the only form of terror… I think that in Tunisia, we all pay a price, whether one is an artist or not, at one time or another in one’s life, at an intimate, familial, social or educational level. In Tunisian society, either one makes concessions, or one is confronted with countless obstacles.”— Leyla Bouzid