Cinema
Goha
Jacques Baratier · 1958
Synopsis
In a Tunisian city, Goha, a naive, poor young man who wanders with his donkey, idles instead of working and refuses to become an adult, to his father's great vexation. He frequents the scholar Taj el-Ouloum, whom the city respects and whose name means “crown of the sciences”. The old man takes as his second wife a young woman, Fulla, who is bored in his palace, and it is Goha she falls in love with.
Context
The screenplay and dialogue are by the poet Georges Schehadé, after Albert Adès and Albert Josipovici. Filming began on 14 March 1957 and lasted fifteen weeks, in Hammamet, Tunis, Ras el-Djebel, Djerba, Kairouan and Sidi Bou Saïd; each scene was shot twice, in French and in Arabic. Omar Sharif plays the title role, and Claudia Cardinale makes her debut in the small part of Amina; Maurice Ohana wrote the music, Jean Bourgoin was the cinematographer, and Mohamed Jamoussi sings. Co-produced with the Tunisian Secretariat of State for Information and presented under the colours of Tunisia, the film was released in Tunis on 15 April 1958; its two versions, restored, were shown at Cannes Classics in 2013.
Who it is for
A tale filmed in Tunisia, light in tone, accessible without prior knowledge of Arab folklore.
Prizes and reception
In competition at Cannes in 1958, where it shared the Premier Regard prize with Visages de bronze.
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