Tiraillement is a short film of the inventive Tunisian film maker Najwa Slama.
Tiraillement means indecision. It is her first film which won an award at 2011 African film festival d'Anger.
Slama subverts the genre of the love triangle,in Tunisia. Men can play around, but women are supposed to remain virgin until she's deflowered on her wedding night. There, the bloody bed sheet is proudly displayed as proof of the bride's purity and her father's honor.
In Tiraillement, Slama turns the tables as the hijab clad sister refuses a marriage offer by Skanda who coverts her whilst he has been going out her liberated sister. The bond of friendship is strong between the sisters; here is no rivalry between the religious and the secular, only the understanding of the cant and the hypocrisy of the male.
The young film maker has a jolly time of making fun of the easily mocked suitor.
For the more 'traditional' sister desires a man who is a virgin. And that says a heart mouthful of the problem of male chauvinism that colors Muslim societies.
Alas, Tiraillement is only available on YouTube. And the film has subtitles in French.
