tunisian festivals

El Jem International Symphonic Festival

Performances of some of the finest classical works, set in the candle-lit surroundings of the best-preserved Roman coliseum in the world. Whether you're a music buff or simply curious, you cannot afford to miss this highly romantic setting. Year after year, the festival has attracted big names from the musical world, clearly as eager to play in such amazing surroundings as spectators are to enjoy them

Festival of Ksour

If the scenery around these parts looks familiar to you, you'd be right. George Lucas' Star Wars were not filmed a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, but in the Seventies, and in the strange lunar landscape of the Tunisian desert.The ghortas (grain stones) created by weathering resemble huge mushrooms, and the inhabitants carve their dwellings out of the sandy rock.

International Festival of Carthage

Although this event is intended as Tunisia's premier international arts festival, its most interesting components include examples of fusion between local, more traditional forms of music and dance and more mainstream, international styles. Particular examples include forms of Tunisian music mixed with jazz. Traditionalists, however, can enjoy productions of many works, including international theatre and ballet performances in the well-preserved Roman amphitheatre

Sahara Douz Festival

The main theme of this demonstration is the cultural heritage of the “Mrazig”, which was at the origin of the nomads practitioner transhumance in the vast Sahara. 

Carthage Film Festival

The Carthage Film Festival is a biannual October film festival hosted by the government of Tunisia.The festival was created in 1966 by the Tunisian Minister of Culture to showcase films from the Maghreb,  Africa, and the Middle East. In order to be eligible for competition, a film must have a director of African or Middle Eastern nationality, and have been produced at least two years before entry.  

Tabarka Jazz Festival

Tabarka Jazz Festival is an annual festival of music taking place in August and July, since 1970, in the coastal town of Tabarka (Tunisia).The town of Tabarka comes to life to the sounds of jazz from around the world.Local and national musicians perform to provide some real fusion flavour, and jazz enthusiasts can take part in seminars and workshops. With the July climate guaranteeing perfect weather, you can enjoy music in the midst of your summer holiday.

tunisian crafts 4

Various Trades

Basket making containing sheets of palm trees constitutes an important aspect of the craft industry of the South; baskets, ranges and hats are the principal products. The wicker is used in the manufacture of basket. The pieces of furniture in basket making (cane-bottoming) are a recent production which gains the favors of increasingly modern customers. PAINTING ANNEALED GLASS Tunisian painting under glass is characterized by its drawn topics hagiographic and heroic the Moslem epopee. The floral and animalist reasons also are very snuffed. Currently it evolves to the utility product (Mirror) in gilded managing staffs which emphasize the expansion of the colors of the very excavated drawings and the light of the mirrors. CAGE OF SIDI BOU SAÏD Very elegant and very decorative, the cage of Sidi Bou Said is inspired in its decoration by the arabesques by the window by wrought iron (Zlabiya) which decorates frontings of the residences of Médina. Wood tunisiancrafts  In producing spite of the scarcity of the forests of wood, the work of wood is strongly enraciné in the craft industry; the Tunisian inheritance conceals famous masterpieces carried out in various gasolines of this material illustrating various techniques. The scarcity of wood allowed the development of major arts related to this noble material: sculpture, openwork and painting.   Should it be recalled that the “minbar” of the Large mosque of Kairouan dated from the lXème century is a single piece of furniture by the beauty of its panels (nearly 110) carved and assembled. It is not only most beautiful “minbar” known but also oldest of the Moslem world arabo. The Tunisian craftsman did not only excel in the sculpture of wood. Other techniques, such as turning and painting are familiar for him. Painting on wood with its geometrical or floral varieties is implemented with art to the ceilings of the mosques and the large residences; she traverses the racks carry-arm, intended to carry weapons lying: she also decorates with splendid trunks devoted by the tradition to contain and take along the trousseau of the bride. But the Tunisian craftsman also expressed his gift by combining some times the sculpture and painting on wood. This is checked for example in several “Hanût Hajjem” which is a kind of front of bed out of painted gilded and carved wooden. Nowadays, the development of manners and the contact with other civilizations, made fall several branches from this craft industry in disuse. Thus, “Hanût Hajjem”, and the trunks are supplanted by modern pieces of furniture manufactured in series or by senior cabinetmakers who married the spirit of times. The old pieces of furniture become rare, nonfunctional and only decorative parts for the modern interiors.   But the techniques remain and evolve/move: the openwork, turning and painting found supports other than the pieces of furniture (racks, consoles, managing staffs, folding screens small curios), where the craftsman continues to excel in thousand-year-old kinds.

tunisian crafts 3

Jewels And Silverware

The history of the Tunisian jewelry goes back to the paddle of the punic era from which it borrows several signs symbols and forms which are found today still in the current jewels. This secular craft industry was enriched by various contributions Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, Turkish and Andalusian who modelled in various materials the ornament of the woman of their time. Today, the distinction a long time maintained between the rural money jewel and the town gold jewel definitively grew blurred. The variety of materials used, the multiplication of the production centres and the development of the tastes stripped the jewelry of its value symbolic system to keep only its commercial value of it. Admittedly regional idiosyncracies persist and point out the origins of various ornaments but they are not any more the exclusiveness in the craftsmen of such or such area: ornaments of marriage, they evolved/moved with this institution of which the ceremonial désacralise more and more.Rihana large chain of flat gold rings, Skhab, chains of gold, money and amber.Khomsas, Kholkhals rings of ankles, the additional fibules of support of Melia, Khellas attest the variety and the wealth of these characteristics but yield gradually to the generation of very snuffed jewels: bracelets out of gold, rings in the form of rhombus encrusted with semi-precious stones or enamels, collars modernized and loops with the European one.   Currently designers and artists invest the field of the craft industry and innovate by proposing jewels of very modern invoice. Contrary to the jewelry which evolves/moves and loses its value symbolic system, Tunisian silverware, if it also loses its functions, perpetuates the same purposes and guard the same passion at the customers: ustensils of luxury, curios and accessories various furnish and decorate the modern interiors. The standard collection consists of a censer (Mabkhara) one to aspergeir (mrech) stylized poudriers, combs, shoes, boxes (Kanawita) and mirrors of toilet. The techniques of pushed back and the filigree compete of beauty and propose different menus purposes with the admiration of the collectors. This range is extended more and more to pieces of furniture, consoles, mirrors and armchairs or the art of the cabinetmaker is requested. Puffed Up Glass Glass is a very old practice deeply anchored in the cultural history of our country. The Punic ones inherited this practice their ancestors Phéniciens, to adapt it and develop it in Carthage and Kerkouane. After the decline of the Roman Empire, the Tunisian glass-makers continued to produce glass with the traditional way of blowing to the free air or in a mould. The Moslem Middle Ages see to settle in Tunisia a craft industry glass-maker which makes specific great strides following the example other countries of the Islamic East: Delicacy of the moulded and cut ornaments and especially wealth of the gilded and enamelled decorations works. The dynasties of Aghlabides, Fatimides and Zirides which sought to compete with the ostentation of the court of Baghdad, developed, as of the IX ème century a craft industry glass-maker which remains active until half of the XIV ème century which saw the elimination of blowing to the mouth with the profit of the industrial production. After an eclipse of a few centuries, glass returns to Tunisia by the effort of the National office of the craft industry which reintroduced the techniques traditionneles. The creative craftsmen took the changing and express themselves from now on in several registers which combine ancestral traditions and modern practices.

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Leather And Leather Working

The formerly flourishing trades of leather, include the art of saddlery and the embroidery on leather, the manufacture of the traditional shoe (balgha) and various other utility purposes in leather working. The saddlery of pageantry trônait at the top of the trades of leather. The saddle with its varieties of embroidery, constituted the chief of work of the craft industry of leather. Forming until the beginning of our century one of the most important corporations of the souks of the médina, the saddlers animated in Tunis the gravers of the souk sarrajines. The other principal corporation of the craftsmen of leather was that of the “balgagias” which, grouped in the souks of the same name made the male and female Turkish slippers. The “balgha” knew its period ostentation when it was the single shoe, of interior and exit, used by the men and the women of all the social classes as well by the townsmen as the rural ones. In addition to the balgha, the craftsmen manufactured other kinds of Turkish slippers such as Besmaq, Rihya and Kontra.  The Turkish slippers of men are generally of the natural color of leather. Those of the women in their majority are embroidered with money and gold, cotton, silk wire with floral reasons or crescents. The development of the lifestyles and transport, gradually, brought the craftsmen of leather to a happy reconversion. Currently, in the gravers of the souks, the craftsmen devote themselves more and more to the manufacture of products of leather working; satchels, portfolios of schoolboys, leather basket, belts, carries sheets, trimmings of offices, boxes, cushions, poufs and purposes decorative. These purposes are often stamped by geometrical reasons. The souk of the “Balghajiya” is today the last and the single souk which still keeps its specialization in spite of the generalization of the modern shoe. The rehabilitation of the port of the traditional dress is at the origin of the promptness of the souk. The balgha being an essential accessory for the traditional costume. Iron Made Handicrafts WROUGHT IRON The Tunisian wrought iron is especially inspired by the manufacture of Moroccan and Spanish wrought iron (Andalusians). The various reasons which decorate grids, doors, windows, transoms of Souks, and brackets, are of Arab, Spanish and Portuguese inspiration.  The reasons for filling are composed of irons in forms of C and S. Generally, the grids of the windows and the doors are composed of a round iron framework of 8 to 10 mm diameter, and round iron decorative reasons of 5 mm, fixed at the framework and connected to each other by round or flat iron hoops from 3 to 4 mm thickness. More rarely the squares and the flats were employed in these compositions, and only in ironwork inspired by the contributions Spanish and Portuguese or in those of modern times. Other elements referring to the building, the such stops, the entries of locks, the strap hinges, and the “Khomsas” (specifically Arab elements which represent a hand and which according to the legends protect from the evil eye). The wrought iron or cut out, bronze and copper engraved, engraved or cut out are frequently employed for the execution of these accessories of doors. Nowadays wrought iron at conquered other horizons that of the world of the building, it with crossed the universe of decoration as an approval for other craft industries such blown glass, where he becomes an integral part in manufacture of luminaries (glosses, lamps and brackets), of candlesticks and other decorative purposes. COPPER  It is at the XVIIIème century that the craft industry of copper knew its golden age in Tunisia, in particular in the big cities (Tunis, Sfax, Kairouan). The purposes out of copper are an important component of the trousseau of married in the town families until the XX century half. Today, chiselling spreads and embellishes incrustations of money wire, Red copper cauldrons and pots apparent keeping the traces of the hammering, and which one uses as mask pots. Following the example ceramics, vases with the most varied forms such braziers, the candy boxes, the vases with flowers, are covered with a vitreous enamel to the hot colors like the green, the mauve and the honey, which lets show through a schematized floral decoration.

tunisian crafts 1

Carpet

Kairouan is the first center of manufacture while employing more than 23.000 people (especially young women) on a working total of 28.000 in the sector of the craft industry. The tradition allots to a girl of an Othoman governor of Kairouan the introduction in Tunisia, in 1830, carpet at tied points of Anatolian inspiration. However, the oldest traces of carpet go up in Ve front century J. - C. with the famous Carthaginian tapestries tinted with the murex. In VIIIe century, the emir aghlabide paid the tribute with the caliph de Bagdad out of carpet. The uses of the carpet are multiple, whether it is in the mediums townsman, countryman or nomad: saddle, groundsheet, prayer, carpet of decoration, etc One distinguishes today several types of typical carpets of the Tunisian craft industry: The carpet strictly speaking is also specified carpet of Kairouan because its manufacture started at the XIXe century in this city of the center of Tunisia. Even if the manufacture of carpet relates to other cities such as Ksibet el-Médiouni, Gabès or Bizerte, Kairouan remains the principal center of manufacture. Contrary to the mergoum and the kilim, it is about a carpet of tied points not woven. It is manufactured containing wool or of cotton (in particular for the screen and the chain) and more rarely of flax. It can be coloured in the natural colors of the white to chestnut while passing by the beige gray when it is of alloucha type (standard original). The wool is always thick, because it is that of the sheep, but one can use the hair of the dromedary or the goat. Its dimensions are variable, in a rectangular composition, of 70 by 140 cm up to 300 by 400 cm. Its texture, defined by the number of points tied per m ², spreads out between 12.000 and 490.000 but the standard is of 40.000, i.e. 20 lines by 20 lines. The composition of the carpet is made of a broad rectangular central field framed by edges made up of parallel bands. The field has broad corner pieces which delimit a hexagonal field. The reasons are geometrical but can also be stylized flowers, giving to the unit a symmetrical aspect with prevalence of the form of the rhombus. During the XXe century, the alloucha type evolves to more complexity and by polychromy, texture increases and the Persian influences are felt with the appearance of the recognizable zarbia to its color brown-red. The mergoum: it is a short-pile carpet of wool often made up on a red content with Berber reasons (regma). Its place of production of origin is the town of Oudhref close to Gabès which gives him sometimes its name. The kilim which translates a strong Turkish influence left by the period of domination Ottoman. Tapestries: one finds them with a large variety of colors in certain cities of the Tunisian South such as Gafsa and Tataouine. Ceramics And Pottery The art of the pottery and ceramics is thousand-year-old in Tunisia which knows two types of pottery: a pottery turned by the men and another modelled by the women: the latter meets only in rural environment; it is primarily utility. Modelling, the cooking and the decoration of these potteries are remained primitive. The lines, the points, the ciliés features, the teeth of saw, the crosses, the rhombuses are as many reasons which point out tattooings and rural fabrics of wool. When with the turned pottery, it seems that they are the potters of Jerba which were the first to use the turn since the most moved back times. They hold their improvement of this art of old Egypt, Phénicie, Greece and Rome. In fact also the potters of Guellala (Jerba) are at the origin of the creation of other centers potters in the Tunisian littoral. Tunis, Nabeul, Moknine them must have given birth to there an of the same production invoices than that of Jerba. But if the porous pottery “chaouat” is identified in Guellala, that enamelled, yellow, green or brown, is synonymous with Nabeul. The potters of this city owe their fame with this technique. The use of the glazes and metallic oxides came from Baghdad at the time aghlabide (IX ème century). Ceramics Fatimide and Zirîde (IX ème century is characterized by a representational art devoting the representation of human figures and animals. This art was spread in the of the same Maghreb countries Q' in Andalusia and Sicily.  From the XVII ème century Tunisian ceramics is subject to strongly the Turkish influence: the ceramists tunisois, installed with Qallaline, produce a polychrome ceramics pointing out that of Turkey Ottmane.    Nowadays, ceramics knows a true rebirth. The development of the sector of the building gave him a new strength by allowing the emergence of a great number of artisanal manufacturing units as well as industrial. But ceramics is not limited to the utility functions since it has an increasingly important place in the play activities of the Tunisian plastics technicians who regard it more as art with whole share than like simple technique.

Literature:tunisia

Literature:tunisia

If Tunisia still lags behind Morocco, and especially Algeria, in Francophone literary production, its Arabic-language literature is more significant both in quantity and quality. In Tunis, two institutions have fostered the revival and continuation of Arabic teaching, the secular and bilingual Lycee Sadiki and the conservative Al Zituna University. The best exponent of this new intellectual thinking is undoubtedly Tahir Haddad (1901-1935), who advocates a revamping of old traditions and values, emphasizing the catalytic role of the working class (as in his 1927 essay "Tunisian Workers and the Emergence of Trade Unionism") and especially of women (in his 1930 provocative but foresighted essay "Our Women before Shazia [body of Islamic law] and Society") in this rebirth. Politically, this rebirth coincided with the emergence of the Neo-Dustur Party, which espoused a radical platform of national independence. This desire to forge a new and distinctively Tunisian identity is reflected in the works of a group of poets, short-story tellers, polemicists, and journalists known as Taht Al-Sur (Under the Ramparts), named after the cafe where they met. The most talented of this group is Ali Du'aji (1909-1949). His short stories, full of humor and mordant wit, are still widely read in Tunisia. Yet in the belles lettres of the period, the most popular genre was poetry, and in this province Abul Kacem Al-shabbi (1909-1934), the poet of love and youth, reigned supreme. Indeed, Al-Shabbi, Tunisia's best-known poet in the Arab world, was also the first to break away from a classical rhetorical tradition that was out of touch with modem sensitivity and concerns. However, Al-Shabbi was a lone voice in Tunisia, indeed in the Maghreb, as he had little influence on his contemporaries who continued writing traditional verse, using time-honored rhetorical devices. ARABOPHONE LITERATURE Among the literary figures Arab, one can quote Ali Douagi, who produced more than 150 radiophonic tales, mahmoud messadi with 500 poems and popular songs and nearly 15 plays, Béchir Khraief, which gave a new breath to the Arab novel in the years 1930 and published in 1937 his first novel which made scandal because the dialogs were written in Tunisian dialect, Moncef Ghachem or Mahmoud Messaadi. Tunisian poetry, opts to nonconformism and innovation: Abou el Kacem Chebbi thus brings a new language by deploring the poverty of imagination in the Arab literature. FRANCOPHONE  LITERATURE The Tunisian Francophone  literature concerns literally the XXth century only strictly speaking. It is enriched firstly by Arab Moslem authors - as Mahmoud Aslan or Salah Farhat - more than minorities authors Jewish (Ryvel or César Benattar), Italian even Maltese (Marius Scalési). In addition, the Francophone  literature also takes a rise thanks to the French people installed in Tunisia who based a literary life by taking model on the Parisian literary life. Today, it is characterized by its critical direction. Contrary to pessimism of Albert Memmi, which predicted that the Tunisian literature was condemned to die young, Tunisian writers bore abroad: Abdelwahab Meddeb, Tahar Bekri, Mustapha Tlili, Hélé Béji or Fawzi Mellah. The topics of the wandering, the exile and tearing constitute the main axis of this literary creation.

theater in tunisia

Theater in tunisia

The theater started to belong to cultural landscape of the country at the beginning of the XXème century, partly thanks to the contact théatreavec the Masters of the Egyptian theater come at the time to Tunisia. This report quickly gave rise to a pleiad of theatrical figures which dissociated European theater, already present in the country, by a claiming conscience of the Tunisian and Arab identity.   Names, such as Mohamed Bourguiba, Ibrahim El Akkoudi, Khélifa Stambouli, Mohamed Lahbib made school thanks to the accession of intelligentsia and the support of the nationalists. And it is with Mandelevium Abdelaziz El Agrebi, that the first professional troop: The Troop of the Town of Tunis was confirmed in 1954.  This troop benefitted from the first promotions of the Arab School of theater and it is within its framework that Aly Ben Ayed (prematurely deceased in 1972) carried out with brilliance the first “esthetic revolution” of the Tunisian scene. According to its example, the generation of independence could, with the five decade old wire, to work what one recognizes today like the Tunisian theater. Born from the school theater, this generation made its weapons with the university theater before refining its knowledge in prestigious institutes and schools of theater of Europe. The second “theatrical revolution”, gradually imposed a method of creation based on the actor and succeeds in proposing a new dramaturgy which gained the accession of the public. As for the theater based on the traditional text, he knew his period of splendor in the Seventies with authors such as Ezzeddine Madani which signed several successes. But the theater of the author/actor/director defended by the New Theater (first private theatrical company of the country), quickly eclipsed the theater of repertory. The public, in young majority, did not hesitate to prefer a theater of the present at a theater playing over the past. The spectacular success of Ghassalet ennouader (Rain of Fall) in 1980, confirmed this tendency.

Dance In Tunisia

Dance In Tunisia

TRIBAL SWORD DANCE Dancing with swords is an ancient skill in North-Africa. Especially bedouin dancers of the sahara used to do it as a sing of the women that they carry the honour of their husband. Some tribes had sword dancers at their wedding to bring good luck. A few paintings and engravings of the french artist Jean-Léon Gérôme (who stayed in Egypt in the 18 th century) show sword dancers balancing an sabre on their head.   Sword dancing - in arabic called Raqs al Saïf - is widely spread in Turkey, the Middle East as well as Pakistan-India (remember the sword dance in the movie Qurbani?) and Iran (Shamshir-bazi). RAQS AL JUZUR A characteristic of Tunisian dance is the horizontal forward and back movement of the hips, reminiscent of the Twist of the 1960’s. The costume of the dancers consists of a melia, a draped garment, which is held together by two silver fibulas (the ancestor of the safety pin). The melia belongs to the family of the most elementary kinds of clothing, in which a straight swath of cloth without tailoring or seams is draped around the body, as for example the Roman toga, the Indian sari or the Indonesian sarong. A specialty of the islands of Kerkennah and Djerba is Raq al Juzur in which the dancer, accompanied by the mizwid (bagpipe) and drums, balances a clay pot on her head while she follows the beat of the drum with her hips. A wool belt with large tassels at each side emphasizes the strong hip movements. Men also perform this dance, often balancing high towers of heavy clay pots on their heads. This dance has become a national symbol for Tunisia.

cinema:tunisia

Cinema:tunisia

Tunisian cinema was born on a particularly fertile ground, nurtured by a love of cinema and admiration for the great works of world cinema. As early as 1922, Samama Chikly, a forerunner of Tunisian cinema and a dabbler who shot the first submarine and aerial (from a hot-air balloon) pictures, made a short fiction film ("Zohra") and the medium-length "Aïn el Ghazel" in 1924, starring his own daughter Haydé, and so became one of the early "indigenous" film-makers of the African continent (the first feature film to which contributed an Egyptian director was only made in 1927). Later, in 1949, seven years before it acquired its political independence, Tunisia was already one of the countries in the African continent with the biggest number of film societies.Tahar Cheriaa, the president of the federation of film societies and later in charge of the cinema department at the Ministry for Culture, was set to become the "father" of the first Tunisian film productions (Omar Khlifi's "L'Aube", the first Tunisian feature film, was made in 1967) and the founder of the very first Pan-African and Pan-Arab film festival, the "Journées cinématographiques de Carthage" (JCC, the Carthage Film Days) which are now as popular as they were in 1966. The film societies and the JCC contributed to training demanding film-makers and film-goers. Right from the beginning, it was never a case of mimicking the unique, "old" Arab cinema (commercial Egyptian cinema), a great provider of melodramas and musical films out of which a few auteurs were striving to make themselves known. The majority of film-makers would rather try their hand at successfully making, each in their own style, original "expressive" films (about politics, society, culture, etc.) bearing their maker's touch and aiming for the international quality standards. Apart from a few exceptions, they did so without taking the easy way out, which would have been rewarding only with the local audience. Unlike its neighbours in Maghreb where, for various reasons and in various periods, "epic" and "populist" films were made, such categories are virtually non-existent in Tunisian cinema where auteur films prevail in an almost individualistic manner. These films are often very different from each other: for example, Nacer Khemir's aesthetic choices have nothing in common with Nouri Bouzid's. In spite of a general "family likeness" and common subject matters, it has been said that each Tunisian film-maker represents his or her own "aesthetic school", as we can see in the films shown in Nantes, which were all landmarks in their own time. Such freedom of choice was made possible because Tunisia also has a kind of film censorship (different from TV censorship) which is undoubtedly one of the most lenient in the Arab world: scenes that are forbidden in other Arab countries (and edited out from Tunisian films screened there), revealing the celebration of female nudity ("Halfaouine"), homosexuality ("Man of Ashes"), political repression ("Golden Horseshoes"), sex tourism ("Bezness"), the destitution of poor areas ("Essaida"), women's right to sexual enlightenment ("Fatma", "Red Satin"), were eventually approved by Tunisian censorship as long as they were expressed by artists and necessary to the coherence of their work. All these elements (a wide film-loving audience and great freedom of expression allowing film-makers to deal with bold subject matters confronting what remained taboo elsewhere), as well as the economic rejection of the all-powerful State and the active support of the private sector which enabled energetic producers (such as Ahmed Attia, Hassan Daldoul, Selma Baccar, and today Dora Bouchoucha, Ibrahim Letaief, Nejib Belkadhi, etc.) to emerge, despite difficulties, all these helped create a sort of golden age both for the artists and the audience during the 1986-1996 decade. Of course, during the previous decade, Tunisian cinema had already been a star on the international festival scene with several films such as "The Ambassadors" (1976), "Sun of the Hyenas" (1977), "Aziza" (1980), "The Trace" (1982), "Traversées" (1982), and "The Surveyors of The Desert" (1984), which all received numerous awards in many festivals. The miracle was that, from "Man of Ashes" (1986) onwards, Tunisian viewers also acclaimed national films in an unprecedented way, unlike what happened in most Southern countries where auteur films are restrained within the ghetto of art houses or exclusively benefit from the "prestige" of foreign festivals. Tunisian auteur films did much better at the local box-office than the best-selling Hollywood or Egyptian films, even so-called difficult films such as "Chich Khan" or "Soltane el Medina": they created a totally new filmic category Ñ mass auteur films! These films won on the local as well as international scenes through theatrical release in foreign countries, reaching a wider audience than that of the festivals, as was the case for big local successes like "The Silences of the Palace", "Halfaouine", "A Summer in La Goulette", (and later abroad "Red Satin"). The makers of these films were often honoured by an invitation to be members of official juries in major film events such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin. The golden age of the local triumph of Tunisian films stopped after a decade for a number of reasons: the proliferation of very cheap satellite dishes with "pirate cards" (giving free access to subscription-based TV channels) and video shops also offering the latest pirated films have kept the general audience away form the big screen. Also, the fact that ERTT (the national TV network) stopped showing daily promotional trailers of Tunisian films deprived the audience of their main source of information and incentive as far as national films were concerned.   The decline was also visible on the international scene. Unlike Tunisia, Morocco remarkably based the organisation of its audiovisual industry on solidarity (Moroccan cinema is funded by a part of the TV advertising income) and thus increased its annual production (Moroccan films logically replaced Tunisian films in the various Cannes festival sections in a healthy continuity as soon as 2002). Morocco also became a major location for foreign films, whereas Tunisia had been the leader in that respect thanks to Tarek Ben Ammar's achievement as a famous Tunisian producer of international scale. Today Tunisian cinema is far behind in structural terms.   Tunisia still has no national film centre, no unified ticketing system, no multiplexes (to stop viewers from deserting one-screen cinemas, as this was done elsewhere), no diversified funding sources. It yields no more than three feature films a year, with the help of the praiseworthy (and steadily increasing) financial support of the Ministry for Culture and other national and foreign institutional forms of support. Economic helplessness is coupled with artistic disarray. So far, the success of Tunisian cinema had come from the generation of the 1960s film societies, fostered by a love of the great works of the silver screen, a generation born before the generalisation of television which introduced a new relationship to the moving image. To stop the decline of the local audience and of the Tunisian presence on the international scene, new film-makers desperately and unconsciously try to mimic what they think were the "recipes" for the success of the previous generation, or the "expectations" of foreign festival programmers. Others explore totally new directions: this is what Raja Amari or Nidhal Chatta did in their first features and what can be seen in a number of short fiction films by newcomers, or in Hichem Ben Ammar's "ethnographic" and poetic documentaries. While economic reorganisation is yet to happen, the achievements of tomorrow's Tunisian cinema will surely come from this new "young wave".

Cuisine Of Tunisia

Cuisine Of Tunisia

   

  

Tunisian cuisine is a blend of European, Oriental and desert dweller's culinary traditions. Its distinctive spicy fieriness comes from neighbouring Mediterranean countries and the many civilizations who have ruled Tunisian land: Phoenician, Roman, Arab, Turkish, French, and the native Berber people. Many of the cooking styles and utensils began to take shape when the ancient tribes were nomads. Nomadic people were limited in their cooking by what locally made pots and pans they could carry with them. A tagine is really the name of a conical-lidded pot, although today the same word is applied to what is cooked in it.

Like all countries in the Mediterranean basin, Tunisia offers a "sun cuisine," based mainly on olive oil, spices, tomatoes, seafood (a wide range of fish) and meat from rearing.Unlike other North African cuisine, Tunisian food is spicy hot. A popular condiment and ingredient which is used extensively Tunisian cooking, harissa is a hot red pepper sauce made of red chili peppers and garlic, flavoured with coriander, cumin, olive oil and often tomatoes. There is an old wife's tale that says a husband can judge his wife's affections by the amount of hot peppers she uses when preparing his food. If the food becomes bland then a man may believe that his wife no longer loves him. However when the food is prepared for guests the hot peppers are often toned down to suit the possibly more delicate palate of the visitor. Like harissa or chili peppers, the tomato is also an ingredient which cannot be separated from the cuisine of Tunisia. Tuna, eggs, olives and various varieties of pasta, cereals, herbs and spices are also ingredients which are featured prominently in Tunisian cooking.

                                                  

                                                        

Tabil, prounced "table," is a word in Tunisian Arabic meaning "seasoning " and refers to a particular Tunisian spice mix, although earlier it meant ground coriander. Paula Wolfert makes the plausible claim that tabil is one of the spice mixes brought to Tunisia by Muslims expelled from Andalusia in 1492 after the fall of Granada. Today tabil, closely associated with the cooking of Tunisia, features coriander seeds and is pounded in a mortar and then dried in the sun and is often used in cooking beef or veal.

Thanks to its long coastline and numerous fishing ports, Tunisia can serve abundant, varied and exceptionally fresh supply of fish in its restaurants. Many diners will be content to have their fish simply grilled and served filleted or sliced with lemon juice and a little olive oil. Fish can also be baked, fried in olive oil, stuffed, seasoned with cumin (kamoun). Squid, cuttle fish, and octopus are often served in hot crispy batter with slices of lemon, as a cooked salad or stuffed and served with couscous.

Main dishes

Couscous is the national dish of Tunisia and can be prepared in many ways. It is cooked in a special kind of double boiler called a kiska:s in Arabic or couscoussière in French. Meat and vegetables are boiled in the lower half. The top half has holes in the bottom through which the steam rises to cook the grain which is put in this part. Cooked this way the grain acquires the flavour of whatever is below. The usual grain is semolina. To serve, the grain is piled in the middle of a dish, and the meat and vegetables put on top. A sauce can be then poured over before serving.

Like in the rest of North Africa, couscous is served on all occasions. It is traditionally eaten with lamb, the semolina must be very fine, and the vegetables (carrots, little white cabbages, turnips, chick peas) only lightly cooked. Depending on the season, the vegetables change: there may also be cardoons, cold broad beans, or pumpkin.

  Unlike Moroccan tajines, a tagine in Tunisia usually refers to a kind of "quiche" made from beaten eggs and grated cheese consisting of meat and/or various vegetable fillings, prepared like a large cake and cooked in the oven. Mloukhia, a beef or lamb stew with bay leaves and served with French bread. Its name is derived from the green herb used, which produces a thick gravy that has a mucilaginous (somewhat "slimy") texture, similar to cooked okra.

The most sought-after seafood speciality is poisson complet: the fish is prepared, fried, grilled or sautéed, accompanied by potato chips and either normal or spicy tastira, depending on the kind of peppers used in the dish. The peppers are grilled with a little tomato, a lot of onion and a little garlic, all of which is finely chopped and served with a poached egg.

culture:tunisia

culture:tunisia

Tunisia, a melting-pot of different civilizations, has always had a rich cultural activity, as testified by its prestigious museums and cultural institutions and by the various international festivals held throughout the year. Sustained efforts have been deployed to promote the cultural sector. The Heritage Code grants companies important tax breaks to encourage investments in restoration and protection of archaeological monuments (e.g. Cathedral of Carthage;) promulgation of legal texts allows free importation of books and paper destined for cultural purposes and the exemption from customs duties of musical instruments.

A whole strategy has been put in place to set up institutions serving as points of reference in the various domains of cultural activity. Among them, the National Dance Center of Borj El Baccouche, the House of Baron d'Erlanger converted into a Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music, and the Husseinite Museum (covering the period of the Beys) in the Palace of Ksar Said.

Other projects are in the process of completion, such as the Museum of Modern Art, located at the Palace of El Abdellia, and the National Cultural Center of Tunis. In addition, the International Cultural Center of Hammamet has been refurbished and transformed into the House of the Mediterranean, specializing mainly in theatrical arts. The institution of "Beit el Hikma" was converted into an Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in order to better contribute to the cultural and intellectual activity of Tunisia. The academy also welcomes distinguished scholars wishing to conduct research in various fields and serves as a meeting place for debates and exchanges between researchers, scholars and artists.

A strategy was adopted , consisting in setting up institutions that can act as vibrant focal points in Tunisian cultural life.

Among these institutions one can mention Tunisia's new, state of the art National Library, the National Heritage Institute, the National Dance Center of Bordj El Baccouche, the Baron d'Erlanger Palace which is home to the Arab and Mediterranean music Centre, the Husseinite Museum (covering the Beylical period) at the Ksar Said Museum, within the Bardo Museum.

Other mega projects are also afoot which include Tunis "Culture city" , which will comprise several premises dedicated to arts (opera, theatre and music), a library, exhibit halls, a national archives arts center for new acquisitions, two cinemas, as well as a national museum of civilizations. On the other hand, the International Hammamet Cultural Center ( formerly, "Dar Sebastian") has been renovated to become "The House of the Mediterranean", specializing namely in dramatic arts.

"Beit El Hikma" or House of Wisdom, which is located in Carthage, has been promoted to the rank of "Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters", so as to better contribute to enrich Tunisia's cultural, intellectual and scientific activity.

The Academy also plays host to conferences, colloquia and a place of meeting for researchers, scholars and men of culture, committed to pursue their scholarly activities in an environment propitious to intellectual endeavour. Moreover in 2006, a National Translation Center has been set up with the aim of consolidating the presence of Tunisian cultural activity on the world cultural scene.

Traditional Costume:tunisia

Traditional Costume:tunisia

So today, Tunisian gets dressed and relative in the same way, it was different at the beginning of the century, where each area, if not each village had its male and female costumes.

The female traditional costume is characterized by its variety from one area to another. However the essential part which constitutes it is the bent “cut” tunic.

Conceived in broad and simple forms the tunics without handles, are often cut in fabrics of wool, cotton or silk, according to the circumstances. The embroidery is the distinctive sign of the various regional costumes.

Money wire, spangles and braids gilded are the ornaments of almost all the ladies' garments: portfolios (Qmajja), waistcoat (Farmla), dress (Jebba and Kadrûn), scarf (Takrita), Cap (Qoufiya), handles (Kmâm), and tunic of marriage (large Qmajja).

In the Sahel are made the draped rich person, embroidered of gold and silk where abound with multiple figurative reasons: characters, flowers, animals…

The villagers of the mountains of the South raise their elegant draped dresses of geometrical reasons.

The caps richly decorated with embroideries of silk, money, pearls and gold, of the jewels, many and varied, of the shirt makers to the broad lace handles, of the shoes to the adapted embroideries were the essential complements of these female costumes.

The traditional costume is today still, the behavior par excellence for the marriages and the ceremonies and constitutes a source of inspiration of more modern clothes.

From the techniques and esthetics old, new products were born. Clothing and the ornament know a change adapted to the life contemporary and imposed by the fashion.    The male traditional costume has to him also its regional specificities all while referring at Arab ancestral origins for its general aspect (full costume).

Kaddroun, the blouse, the bden are still carried especially in the rural regions but it is Jebba which was essential like national traditional dress.

Jebba Tunisian profited from the influences Andalusian and Turkish to forward itself such-which is nowadays.

This loose dress covering all the body, is different according to quality from its fabric, its colors and its passementeries. 

The vestimentary trimmings (harj-elkessoua), woven passementeries, gallons, braids owe beings harmonizes some with fabrics of the jebba variable according to the seasons: tease, silk, cloth (melf), fabric of flax (quamraya) and mixes silk and teases (mqârdech).

The parts supplementing the port of the jebba, male traditional costume of the townsmen, contains two to three open or closed waistcoats (bedaia), sedria, fermla), a jacket (mentân), a jodhpurs (serouâl) tight with the size by a broad silk belt. Outside this costume is supplemented by the port of a burnous which is also raised by a special embroidery works men embroiderers called “Bransia”.

Traditional Foods of Tunisia

If you’ve ever travelled to Tunisia before, you’ll know it can be quite expensive. Although if you fly with Gatwick, and take on Gatwick Parking. This way you’ll save a bunch, which can be spent on their delicious food.

For those unfamiliar with doing so, eating in Tunisia can seem like a very strange and exotic experience.

Commonly served dishes may seem unfamiliar or to be made with ingredients not commonly served together in other countries. Of course, specialties may differ between regions, but there are certain dishes which are considered staples of the Tunisian diet.

Though not a universal truth, many Tunisian dishes are spicy. The cuisine in Tunisia is a mixture of Mediterranean cuisine and that of desert dwellers.

A particular Tunisian spice mix, known is tabil, is used in many dishes. Tabil is made of garlic, cayenne or red pepper, coriander and caraway seeds.

The ingredients are often mixed in a mortar and dried beneath the rays of the sun. Beef, veal and game are the most common dishes to be flavoured using tabil.

Appetizers

Harissa is a very common Tunisian appetizer, and will often be found as a part of every meal. The dish is a compote made of garlic, cumin, olive oil and dried chilli peppers.

Many restaurants serve it as a dip for bread, and it is often free and each restaurant or family has their own harissa recipe. One common variation of Harissa involves sprinkling tuna on top of the dish.

Brik is one of the most common appetizers served in Tunisia.These are essentially fried triangle pastries filled with olive oil, parley, egg and tuna and often served with lemon to be squeezed on top. This is often a favorite appetizer among tourists.

Tunisian couscous on the right 

Main Courses

Famous the world over, couscous is a staple in Tunisian meals and is considered the country’s most famous meal.

Tunisian couscous is made of finer grains than many other forms of couscous and often harissa is added. It is commonly served with various meats, peppers, chick peas, potatoes and carrots. The most common meat is lamb, but some restaurants and dishes use chicken or fish.

The best couscous is served in private homes on Sunday.

Ojja is a spicy stew made of meat, olive oil, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, harissa and egg. It is often served in fast food restaurants, normally in a double serving meant for two people.

The most common type of ojja is made with small sausages, but variations include lamb, beef or seafood. In some places, vegetarian ojja can be ordered.

Baklava 

Desserts

Fruit is heavily consumed in Tunisia as a dessert but there are a variety of honey, nut and pastry sweets that are also considered Tunisian traditional deserts.

Makroudh has a date filling. Balkawa, also known as Baklava in Greece, is filled with chopped nuts.

A New World of Tastes

Tunisia has a variety of new tastes to try out. If extremely lucky, a visitor will be invited to a private home to partake of a meal with a family.

If this happens, especially on a Sunday, it is considered a great honor and will certainly be a treat for the visitor’s taste buds.



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