THE MAGIC BOX
Tunisia, 2002, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Ridha Bedhi
The Magic Box is a sometimes intriguing film about life in Tunisia in the last decades of the 20th century. The film focuses also on cinema and its importance in Tunisia, the Tunisian industry, foreign films from Egypt and the travelling film men. While it has a contemporary setting, it also goes back into the 1960s and shows the life of the hero as a young boy, the style of life in Tunisia, the Islamic traditions, learning the Koran. However, it also shows his growing up, the effect of his training on him – and his adaptation to the contemporary world. He is a screenwriter, a film-maker – and has to explore how he can make films within the Tunisian and Islamic context of his culture.
1. A film about Tunisia? Film-makers? Film buffs? The local themes and local cinema? The universal themes? The projectors and the early Magic Box to the contemporary films of the '60s, to the films of 2000?
2. The Tunisian settings, the provincial town, in the '60s, old style, the schools, the open cinema? Homes? The contrast with the affluence and development of 2000? The musical score and its atmosphere?
3. The film from a Muslim country, the presentation of Islam, the children learning the Koran by rote, the strict father and his quoting the Koran? The looser interpretation of the Koran? More permissive living in the '60s? The contrast with the religiosity of 2000? The more obvious worldliness of Tunisians?
4. The structure of the film: the past, the '60s, the provincial town, the young boy? The contrast with the scenes from the present? The opening with the dream sequence, martial law, death and betrayal? The final dreams and Raouf and his meeting his younger self? Going to Heaven?
5. The focus on films, their importance in Tunisia, the Tunisian industry, the foreign films from the west and from Egypt being brought into Tunisia, the travelling film man? The advertising from the van in the streets? The children hurrying, the audience? The selling of the drinks? Using Zorro to entice the children to come? The contrast with the present, sophisticated film-making and scriptwriting, working on the laptop, the television commission? The development over forty years?
6. Raouf as a young boy, his age, experience, in the baths, seeing the man disappear, his father commenting on his making things up? The reappearance of the man out of the bath? At home, his imagination, at school, learning the Koran, running off to be with his uncle, advertising the films, the dreams, Zorro? His relationship with his strict father, his father humiliating him and making him clean his shoes in public? With his mother? Sitting watching the transvestite dance and sing, the other people watching, his family's reaction? His friendships, the little girl? His uncle, giving him the gift of the Magic Box and looking at the moving images?
7. Raouf the film-maker, early forties, his marriage to Lou, his nightmare about her betraying him? Her drinking, the crash, his having to get her from the police station? Her alienation, her explanations about not liking living in Tunisia, the past and her mad love for him? His not letting her go home when her father was dying? His wanting her to wear the red dress? His going to his old home town, her refusal to go, the separation? His love for his children, making them drink milk as his father forced him to drink milk when he was young? His skills as a film-maker, his reputation? Going to the party, the discussions, his being a celebrity, meeting the theatre director? Discussions? His working, the laptop? The memories and the interconnection between himself and his past? The reality of memory? His remembering his father's arrest, the taking of all the furniture, the taking of the Magic Box and his racing after the truck? His going back to the town, examining the past, meeting the people? Driving away, his reverie, his avoiding the cow on the road, his death? His going to Eternity in the company of his younger self and discovering himself?
8. Raouf's family, his father and his sternness, in the baths, drinking the milk, the humiliation about the films, his condemnation of depraved films, cleaning the shoes, his being arrested? His mother and her love for him? The other members of the family? The school, the master inculcating the Koran? His other friends?
9. A humane story, a portrait of an artist, in his time and place, his achievement?
