Fatma and her two daughters, Najeh and Waffeh, are machtat, wedding musicians in Mahdia, a small city in Tunisia. The sisters follow opposite paths: while Najeh, divorced, tries to remarry to escape the
authority of her brothers, Waffeh wishes to divorce her violent husband. And Fatma navigates between the two, praying that things will go better one day.
Sonia Ben Slama is a French-Tunisian documentary filmmaker. She grew up in Paris where she studied art and cinema at the University Sorbonne-Nouvelle.
In 2015, she directed in Tunisia her first feature documentary Maktoub. The film tells the story of her grandmother’s marriage 70 years ago in a small Tunisian town and her cousin’s wedding nowadays in the very same place. Machtat, her second film, is in the continuity of Maktoub and explores similar themes from a different angle. From the point of view of three female wedding singers, the film raises the issue of marriages and rules for women in a patriarchal society. The film is premiering in the International Competition at Visions du Réel Film Festival 2023. It’s also part of the ACID Cannes 2023 program. Sonia is currently developing a new feature-length documentary project, 316 North Main Street, shot in the United States.
