Covering rural Tunisia during the 1990s into present day, the introduction of electricity + television to its communities, and the impact it had on the future generations of Tunisians promised a better future in a far away land by the lights in the box. Quite slow in its methods, Saber Zammouri, the director and one of said immigrants to Paris, takes his time showing rather than telling, without any sort of long exposition or direct message. The first half of the film includes many steady camera, and quite gorgeous I must say, shots of the Tunisian village, its now aging inhabitants, and the dry, almost desolate world around them. The unmistakable sounds of a television fill the air, backed by the soft hum of a fan as we overlook barren dessert sands blowing against the ever growing cracks of a rammed earth building, window shutters long forgotten and broken. Inside, multiple men watch the single tv, now hooked up with internet calls, showing their friends and relatives in Paris, as they all chat and watch the local politics. In the later half of the film we're revealed the realities of the world promised them by the tv at a young age: the concrete jungle of Paris, where many in Tunisia were told of prosperity and a strong future. Again with few words, the film juxtaposes both this separation of rural Tunisia and the hearts of Paris, with much faster paced handicam footage of dark Paris alleyways, and we see many shots of dozens of megascreens displaying all sorts of advertisements at all hours of the night. Again, a slow watch, but one that was worth the patience, I left feeling quite depressed and directionless, which I'd say is perhaps exactly the goal. For those interested of the social impacts of technology and propaganda, would recommend if you can get your hands on it.
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