Like many young Tunisians, 24-year-old Ali Arbi dreams of living in France. Unfortunately, his multiple attempts to obtain a French visa have been unsuccessful.
One day, his two grandmothers, Aïcha and Selma, who are twin sisters, decide, in collusion with their mother Naïma (90 years old), to reveal a long-concealed family secret to Ali. They confide in him that in 1945, their mother Naïma, who was 15 years old at the time, worked as a live-in maid for French colonizers. One day, a young French soldier named Jules Lebrun, a relative of her employers, raped her. Naïma became pregnant with their twin daughters. Ali is shocked and outraged. But afterward, he realizes that this revelation could allow him to obtain French nationality. He is overjoyed with the idea. However, such an important confession is of no interest without an official document establishing his lineage to Jules Lebrun. So Ali asks his friend Mondher, a brilliant student in genetic engineering, to analyze his DNA to determine the "French" part of his genes. The result proves to be conclusive.
Ali presents himself at the French consulate with his DNA analysis and requests his French nationality based on "right of blood" (jus sanguinis). However, he receives a refusal. His friends take up the matter and publish it on social media. In no time, the news spreads like wildfire, and the internet explodes.
The case of Ali Arbi brings to the surface a dark side of colonialism, causing an unprecedented political unease.
Nawfel Saheb Attabaa is a director, producer and screenwriter. He studied visual communication and cinema at the University of Quebec, where he graduated in 1991. Between...
