No, it isn't Groucho Marx but his younger, though just as lively, sosie Férid Boughedir who is here representing Tunisia on the jury, after his success at the Berlinale last year with Un été a la Goulette, which opened in Paris on Christmas Day and shot to the top of the box office there immediately.
Festivals are second nature to him - he was invited to be director of the enormous biannual event in Carthage in 1992 - and he travelled widely with his first documentaries on African and Arab cinema, while his debut feature Halfaaouine was selected for Cannes and broke attendance records back home.
'It was in 1987, the year of the 40th anniversary and Halfaaouine was shown in the Quinzaine. It is the first part of my trilogy, which I plan to continue soon with Hammam-liff; this will be set in another resort near Tunis where I grew up. I like to make films in the same way that I like inviting people to dinner at home - perhaps because we have this tradition of hospitality in the Arab world - and I only want to offer the spectator the same quality food that I enjoy eating myself. The viewer should be my guest. Although the Berlinale has become so big, it still has this conviviality.' Phillip Bergson
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