Crimes et tabous dans les nouvelles séries ramadanesques en Tunisie

Abstract

This article focuses on the aesthetic analysis of two Tunisian Ramadan series: Nouba by Abdelhamid Bouchenak and El Foundou by Saoussen Jemni. It aims to shed light on how the film noir framework is used or subverted to serve as a mirror of Tunisian society. The directors thus seize upon the element of crime to reveal taboos and points of tension (social, cultural, and political) in Tunisian society, interrogating family structures (through family ties or otherwise) and revealing periods of social and political tension that Tunisia has experienced, particularly during the 1990s. This study ultimately highlights how the arrival of a younger generation of directors is contributing to the renewal—both aesthetically and in terms of the themes addressed—of Ramadan series in Tunisia.