A Son | Telescope Film
A Son

A Son (Bik Eneich - Un Fils)

User Rating

  • Tunisia,
  • France,
  • Lebanon
  • 2019
  • · 95m

Director Mehdi M. Barsaoui
Cast Sami Bouajila, Najla Ben Abdallah

Fares and Meriem take their son Aziz on a weekend trip to Tatouine, where they are the accidental victims of a violent fundamentalist group. While the parents go unharmed, Aziz is gravely wounded. Fares and Meriem must do everything in their power to save him, even if it means uncovering old wounds from their own past.

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What are users saying?

Yasmeen Gaber

This film is a layered commentary on marriage, family life, medical practices, and life in post-revolution Tunisia. Thematic messages are evoked subtly through an effortless plot and and an intense psychological examination of the main characters. The acting performances put this film over the top and make this film a must-watch.

What are critics saying?

90

TheWrap by Elizabeth Weitzman

Shot in anamorphic, with long, silent scenes backed only by Amin Bouhafa’s haunting score, there is not a spare word or wasted image in the 92-minute running time. It should be said that this is not an easy watch, by any means. But it would be fair to call it a revelatory one.

88

RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny

While “A Son” has allegorical parables with the political evolution of not just Tunisia but the whole MENA region, the first rate-acting, the very credible environments, and the straightforward, tight-as-a-drum direction make it hum with a directness that few social problem movies can muster.

80

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

As the tone, vibe and storytelling parts shift and shift again — the movie is by turns a hospital drama, a marriage melodrama, a black-market intrigue — Meriem and especially Fares draw you near, push you away and prompt you to choose sides.