Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The rooftop hopper

Tunisia 1990

Details imdb

Seen 9 June 2009

The coming of age story of a boy at the cusp of manhood. Noura is everyone's favourite messenger boy in the neighbourhood and he himself loves the company of two elder boys and the local shoe smith. This is his respite from his strict father and cloyingly protective mother. Noura is at the awkward stage of his life, he is not quite a man yet since he is not always welcomed in the adults' company. He is still able to accompany his mother to the Turkish baths without any problems as his mother maintains that Noura is still a child despite the protestations of the bath owner.
This ideal life remained until the day when his much older friends wanted more information on what was happening when the women take their baths. That proved to be Noura's undoing. Added to this incident was his infatuation with the new addition to his family, an orphan girl entrusted to his parents. Noura's relationship with Latifa, the much more elderly orphan girl gives another dimension to his predicament and new found interest in the opposite sex.
It is quite astonishing to see how easy it is to film so many naked women in the baths despite this being a film from a Muslim country.
A light hearted script makes the film an enjoyable distraction with some attempts at a subtext on women's role in society and the political situation during that period.

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