01/06/2022 - CANNES 2022: In Youssef Chebbi’s pensive thriller, mysterious self-immolations abound at a Tunisian housing development associated with the pre-revolutionary regime

If one were to generalise the difference between a policier-mystery premiering at a festival like Cannes, or one showing on a streaming platform or terrestrial TV, it would be in their attitude to closure. Looking at New Wave-era cinema like Antonioni’s Blow-Up and The Passenger, up to David Fincher’s Zodiac (which had its European premiere at Cannes in 2007), the opacity and space for viewer interpretation common to art cinema and the conventions of investigative thrillers actually go together like gin and vermouth.

Ashkal [+see also:
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Chebbi aces two requirements: his creation of striking imagery, mainly through the prime location of the mid-construction Gardens of Carthage development, and his novel way, inspired by thriller and science-fiction films, of addressing the political deadlock in the wake of the revolution. But from the film’s early minutes, we can feel him resorting to cliché with his two police investigator characters Fatma (Fatma Oussaifi) and Batal (Mohamed Houcine Grayaa). Like the leads from The X-Files or True Detective, they chase up the script’s paranormal mystery – a succession of self-immolations on the premises of the development – with stony humourlessness and furrowed brows, moving us away from the urgent reality that this story is otherwise founded on.

Police procedurals can also act as rich character studies of the investigators themselves, yet Chebbi also doesn’t seem interested in the particulars of Fatma and Batal’s lives, although the actors do their best to enliven the chalk-mark outlines of their roles. Fatma’s father is administering what’s known as the Truth and Rehabilitation Commission, directly dealing with the police’s blame in fermenting the civil unrest that ignited the 2011 revolution. Whilst pertinent, it acts as a crutch for her colleagues on the force to patronisingly brand her as a “rookie” and as the beneficiary of nepotism due to her father’s role. Despite the locale, you can feel her scene partners seconds away from muttering, “They won’t like that one down at internal affairs,” in an outer-boroughs New York accent.

The presiding symbolism that Chebbi is attempting works, and chimes with Harka [+see also:
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film profile], another Tunisian Cannes selection this year, in wondering if the successful transfer of power in the country was all for anything. But in practice, there’s a house of cards (not referring to the show) or Rube Goldberg machine logic: a mysterious, hooded man anonymously sends smartphone videos of self-immolations to various struggling, insecurely paid people in the city (a security guard, a nanny), then meets them on the premises of the concrete-jungle construction site, setting them on fire with the mere touch of his finger. This does suggest that a new uprising in the country may be overdue, although its mystery-of-the-week TV-show style is a strained way to convey this.

Ashkal is a French-Tunisian co-production, staged by Supernova Films, Blast Film and Poetik Film. Its international sales are handled by The Party Film Sales.