Nouri Bouzid receives the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur

The Tunisian director, Nouri Bouzid, received the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur from the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand for his career’s work and his sense of constantly cultivated freedom. Nouri Bouzid said he was very moved and spoke out to all young Tunisian filmmakers.

“I am giving you this decoration in recognition of your long career dedicated to ambitious, non-conformist cinema, for your sense of cultivated freedom and your refusal of any form of censorship, for the boost you have given to North African cinema across the world (…)”. Frédéric Mitterrand used the occasion to talk about the director’s films starting with his first film, Rih Essed, which, at the time, was very controversial since Nouri Bouzid denounced the taboos of Tunisian society. The film was selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes, as was Sfayah min Dhahab, With a lot of emotion and a touch of humour he replied: “I have a slight problem with the revolution, how can I now be in the resistance?”. He then spoke directly to young Tunisian filmmakers “of talent”, reminding them “to never lose their modesty because we love the people we work with on our films, we feel their pain and share it”. Very touched by the decoration, he concluded: “Thank you, I still have to live up to that time”.

On Friday the 20th May, the Festival de Cannes will pay homage to Tunisia with the projection of La Khaoufa Baada Al’Yaoum by Mourad Ben Cheikh.