Lofti Achour’s debut feature, Red Path: On extremism and trauma

3 min read

01 November, 2024

Lofti Achour’s debut feature, Red Path, is a harrowing tale set in rural Tunisia in the mid-2010s. The drama, an international co-production between Tunisia, France, Belgium, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, celebrated its world premiere in the Cineasti del Presente strand of this year’s Locarno Film Festival (7-17 August).

More recently, Achour’s film was featured in the Best of Fiction Cinema section at the Film Festival Cologne, which ran from 17 to 24 October.

The Tunis-born writer-director studied Economics in his hometown and turned to acting after experiencing a family tragedy at 21. He then trained at the Grenoble Conservatory and studied theatre and cinema at the Sorbonne Institute of Theatrical Studies in Paris. Before embarking on making Red Path, Achour produced over 25 theatrical plays and directed four short films, including the Cannes-bound La laine sur le dos in 2016.

His debut feature offers a gripping premise. We meet 13-year-old Achraf (played by Ali Helali) and his older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni), two young shepherds from Mdhila, in a playful mood. After a while, they rest on a rocky surface under the scorching sun. Suddenly, tragedy strikes. A group of extremists attacks them, killing Nizar, and forces Achraf to carry Nizar’s severed head in a bag to deliver it to his family as a gruesome message. Trying not to lose his mind, Achraf realises that Nizar’s ghost is determined to accompany him on this horrifying journey.

What makes the narrative even more distressing is the helplessness and stubbornness of the elders. Though shattered by the tragedy, they seem to ignore what Achraf has just endured. They question him aggressively and force him to lead the family to retrieve Nizar’s body. More concerned with the decomposing corpse — fearing wild animals may have devoured it — they expose Achraf to further danger, recklessly letting him face minefields and other hazards.

Nizar’s ghost appears in a few dream-like sequences, where imagined dialogues and actions take place, sometimes interspersed with touches of humour. For instance, at one point, Achraf says to Nizar’s ghost: “You look better with your head than without.” Moreover, the character of Rahma, Nizar’s girlfriend (charmingly portrayed by Wided Dabebi), brings a gentle sweetness to the otherwise harsh and despair-filled tale.

The performances of the young actors are remarkable. Ali Helali, Yassine Samouni, and Wided Dabebi all show a convincing blend of strength and fragility. They are forced to grow up far too quickly, yet their portrayals reflect the anxiety and vulnerability typical of their age as they face an uncertain future.

On a technical level, the film’s most notable aspects include its gripping pacing — enhanced by the careful work of editors Ewin Ryckaert, Malek Chatta, and Anne-Laure Guégan — and the stunning cinematography of Polish DoP Wojciech Staroń. His beautiful close-ups and long shots effectively capture both the characters’ emotional depth and the unforgiving, rugged landscape.

Interestingly, Red Path is rooted in real events and is set in November 2015, during a particularly turbulent period in Tunisia’s recent history. Achour’s directorial style is genuine and unpretentious, while the raw, empathy-filled script, co-written with Natacha de Pontcharra, Doria Achour, and Sylvain Cattenoy, adds depth to the film.

The writing and direction are firmly grounded in the country’s socio-political turmoil, torn between the remnants of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s regime (which ended in 2010) and the rise of the Islamist movement.

Notably, Achour dedicates Red Path to the children involved in the real-life tragedy, acknowledging them in the closing credits. The on-screen text reads: “The brother of Mabrouk Soltani, the young shepherd who inspired this film, was killed in the same way and in the same place. Their mother died in 2020 without knowing the whole truth behind these crimes.”