Writers: Doria Achour, Lotfi Achour, Sylvain Cattenoy and Natacha de Pontchara
Director: Lotfi Achour
The most disturbing thing about Lotfi Achour’s Red Path (Les Enfants Rouges) is that the brutal story is based upon a true-life incident – the killing of 17-year-old Mabrouk Soltani amid the 2015 Tunisian unrest.
Danger is a regular feature in the life of teenage goat herder Ashraf (Ali Helali) and his older cousin Nizar (Yassine Samouni). Living in a rural Tunisian community the teens are subject to the risk of potential landmines and threats from jihadist extremists who have hideouts in the Mghila Mountain. While exploring the region and enjoying messing about in mountain pools, the friends are ambushed by jihadist terrorists, who kill Nizar and force Ashraf to walk home alone carrying Nizar’s severed head as a warning to their community not to cooperate with the authorities.
Red Path is more about the impact of an act of violence than the act itself. The extremists are heard but never seen, all attention is paid to the victims of their violence. Likewise, the viewer is given no background information on the political events leading up to the violent unrest in the region leaving us as in the dark as the villagers.
The murder deepens discontent within Ashraf’s village. Whist not supporting the terrorists the villagers receive no protection from the authorities and so have little option but to try and appear neutral. The authorities and media outlets which are reluctant to protect the village or help to recover Nizar’s body are quick to exploit the political opportunities offered by his funeral.
Ali Helali carries the burden of portraying the post-traumatic stress endured by Ashraf and the film frequently concentrates on his tormented face in close-up. Ashraf is forced to undertaken tasks well beyond his emotional capability and watches Nazir’s family suffer while guiltily feeling he is to blame. Ashraf cannot bring himself to tell Nizar’s family of his death and instead informs his girlfriend Rahma (Wided Dabebi) thereby forcing her to share his burden. Rahma and Ashraf become bonded by mutual grief even coming close to flirting as she sings a bawdy ballad and Ashraf imagines them swimming together.
Ashraf is an unreliable witness, trauma may have resulted in his memory being imperfect (incorrectly recalling taking dogs with them on their fatal expedition and swimming in pools that are too shallow). But there is also the possibility Ashraf learnt more about his friend than he wished and is trying to protect his family from unwanted revelations.
Director Lotfi Achour uses cinematic flourishes to ease the tension. Flashbacks deepen the friendship between Ashraf and Nizar and a fantasy sequence shows the latter’s might-have –been marriage. But there is a hallucinatory tone to mundane events bordering on dark humour. On his journey back to the village, with Nizar’s head concealed in a gym bag, Ashraf is intimidated by bigger boys into making up the numbers and playing a game of football. The villagers silently re-arrange the shelves in a worn-out refrigerator to accommodate the severed head.
Director Achour achieves a grim authenticity with the film. The stark, washed-out beauty of the region contrasts with the poverty of the villagers. The village is so dirt-poor there is no electric light so events at night are filmed naturalistically in deep shadow. There is a numbing believability to the indifference of the authorities. Worse of all, while the film concludes with Ashraf escaping possible reprisals and leaving for a place of refuge, a closing note informs the audience, in real life, the surviving child also met a grim fate.
Red Path (Les Enfants Rouges) is screening at the SAFAR Film Festival 2025 from 11-28 June.
