Educational Media Reviews Online

With the Middle East and Islamic culture at the forefront of international affairs, Typecast Releasing has issued several DVDs that cover these areas. Most, such as Iraq in Fragments and Beirut: The Last Home Movie, are documentaries, but A Summer in La Goulette tells a fictional story, although one that’s drawn from its Tunisian director’s background.

The film is set in Tunisia in 1967, shortly before the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt. Here, Muslims and Jews live amicably, and the diversity is further enhanced by the presence of Catholics of Italian descent. (The multiculturalism is reflected in the film’s soundtrack, in which Arabic, French, and Italian are spoken.) Everybody goes to the beach at La Goulette in the summer.

Focusing on three families, each representing one of the religions present, the film shows how the religious groups work and socialize together. But the good feelings toward the different religions have their limits. When the teenage daughters in the three families are seen with boys not of their own faiths, the invective starts flying. And unbeknownst to the parents, each of the daughters plans to lose her virginity on the same day by pairing off with those boys.

The overall tone is light, and suffused with nostalgia for a time and situation that no longer exists. As the film explains at the end, the aftermath of the Six Day War caused Jews to leave their Tunisian homeland, feeling the tolerance they had experienced would no longer be present.

This is a minor but entertaining work. It’s recommended for libraries that collect heavily on multiculturalism or North Africa.