Ranging in age and skillfulness, the underpaid and overworked group labors with strict directions to fastidiously deal with the branches—breaking one is a cardinal offense—and to keep away from choosing unripe figs or crushing them throughout sorting. Their younger, however no much less exploitative boss Saber (Fedi Ben Achour) supervises with punishing, hawk-like ferocity.
Tight on their sun-drenched visages, some extra markedly weathered than others, the digital camera assumes the position of a stealthy confederate to innocuous acts of “time theft,” the place the fruit-picking would-be lovers casually converse, typically with flirtatious undertones, and reveal particulars about their earlier entanglements or focus on plans for his or her amorous futures. Nimble cinematographer Frida Marzouk follows them from tree to tree, the greenery round them is perpetually current within the body, amassing their altering expressions, their intimate banter and refined physique language at all times up shut.
To suit her supreme of how a wedding ought to perform, Sana (Ameni Fdhili), an assertive younger girl, needs for love curiosity Firas (Firas Amri), a bearded and burly younger man with unhappy eyes, to desert his mild nature and undertake a extra conservative masculine position. In the meantime, Fidé (Fide Fdhili), essentially the most strong-willed member of the crop of younger laborers, fights again in opposition to the gossip that needs to painting her as an amoral, sexually deviant entity. Arguments could come up between the women, however when a standard enemy threatens their security, Fidé is aware of to place the bickering apart for the frequent good.
Not regardless of, however due to its easy setting, the place the fixed bodily exercise and intermittent breaks present a dynamic backdrop for every of those characters to bloom dramatically, Sehiri accomplishes a fragile storytelling feat with “Below the Fig Bushes.” Every trade opens a brand new window into their particular person yearnings and apprehensions past their must promote their bodily prowess for money. Removed from a film about folks arduously toiling away, it’s an intricate microcosm the place one can see gender and social dynamics at play, significantly of their capability to form how we love and befriend others.