A Tale of Love and Desire

2021 [FRENCH]

Drama / Romance

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 50% · 10 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 50%
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 1274 1.3K

literature coming of age romantic literature young love

Plot summary

Ahmed, 18, is French of Algerian origin. He grew up in the Parisian suburbs. On the benches of the university, he meets Farah, a young Tunisian full of energy recently arrived from Tunis. While discovering a body of sensual and erotic Arabic literature that he never knew existed, Ahmed falls deeply in love with this girl, and although literally overwhelmed by desire, he will try to resist it.

Director

Leyla Bouzid Photo
Leyla Bouzid

Top cast

Sami Outalbali Photo
Sami Outalbali as Ahmed Ouannas
Aurélia Petit Photo
Aurélia Petit as Professeur Anne Morel
Bouraouïa Marzouk Photo
Bouraouïa Marzouk as La mère de Karim
Bellamine Abdelmalek Photo
Bellamine Abdelmalek as Karim
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
943.73 MB
1280*534
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 1
1.89 GB
1920*800
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Kirpianuscus

correct

A film defining social realities in fair, precise way , reflecting, gently, young love, proposing a provocative perspective about biculturalism and offering a not comfortable portrait of present France.The erotic literature of XIII century is the useful piece for define atittudes, fears, cultural roots and the perspective about the other.A beautiful story and seductive acting. And fundamental truths , proposed in the simple and interogative manner.Result - a correct film, rich in nuances, useful for interogation and for the graceful portrait of a new French culture , not reduced to ghetto but giving the traits of near future.
Reviewed by eoreill 9 / 10

Discovering love while caught between cultures

Une histoire d'amour et de désir is a French-language film by the Tunisian director and screenwriter Leyla Bouzid. The film follows Ahmed, a Frenchman born to Algerian immigrants in Paris' working-class suburbs, to the Sorbonne, where he is beginning his studies of literature on a scholarship. There he meets Farah, a young Tunisian woman who is in several classes with him, including one on Arabic erotic literature.A mutual attraction quickly develops between Ahmed and Farah, but the blossoming relationship runs into the obstacle of their differing personalities and cultural values. Ahmed is shy and traditional, sufficiently scandalized by the erotic literature whose existence he was hitherto unaware of to look into changing classes. Farah is outgoing and fun-loving, easily mixing with the other students at the Sorbonne while Ahmed struggles to fit in. She directly pursues her interest in Ahmed, but he hesitates, held back by his timidity, lack of experience, and reluctance to violate the rules around romance maintained by the relatively traditional Muslim community that he grew up in.Leyla Bouzid does an especially effective job of capturing Ahmed's nervous discomfort around the less-inhibited Farah, who openly discusses men and sex with a girlfriend and indulges the French boys who chat her up in cafés or on street corners. Bouzid's direction is confident and skillful, featuring lots of striking shots and sequences along with a soundtrack that fits the film perfectly, and Zbeida Belhajamor's performance as Farah captivates in a way that makes it easy to understand Ahmed's attraction to her.The film deftly examines Ahmed's struggle to deal with the conflict between the traditional values he grew up with and the cosmopolitan and liberal university environment he has entered, as well as the fraught experience of overcoming one's inhibitions to find love. (And as a bonus, the romantic scenes take on an extra charge difficult to find in other modern films thanks to their transgression of the traditional norms that have thus far governed Ahmed's life.) Une histoire d'amour et de désir is an intelligent and touching film that takes on complex subjects with nuance and empathy.
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