In her debut feature, Erige Sehiri observes a group of women harvesting figs in rural northwestern Tunisia. Over the course of a summer workday, conversations unfold under the trees, moving between intimacy, desire, frustration, and reflections on fate and social constraints. Shot in close proximity to the women’s faces and gestures, the film blends fiction and lived experience, offering a grounded portrayal of female labor, solidarity, and the pressures of patriarchy at a moment of social change.
Under The Fig Trees
by Erige Sehiri
Tunisia, 2021
synopsis
about the director
The French-Tunisian director and producer Erige Sehiri (born 1982) lives in Tunis and contributed the episode “Le Facebook de mon père ” (2012) to the collaborative project “Albums de famille,” which won awards at CINEMED in Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand. Since the Jasmine Revolution, she has been committed to the creation of new media in Tunisia.
She is the co-founder of “Inkyfada,” an online magazine by independent journalists that delves into topics that receive little attention in Tunisia. Since 2017, she has run the production company “Henia,” which produces documentaries that highlight workers who are usually overlooked and also develops projects by young filmmakers. In 2018, she filmed ” La Voie normale” (The Normal Way) with Tunisian railway workers , documenting their daily struggle with the dilapidated national railway. The film was screened at Visions du Réel and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), received a special mention from the jury at CINEMED, and won the audience award at the “Filmer le travail” festival in Potiers.
In 2020, Erige Sehiri co-founded “Rawiyat Sisters in Film,” a collective of female filmmakers from the Arab world. Her debut film Under the Fig Trees was selected for the 2022 Filmmakers’ Fortnight in Cannes and Promise le ciel opened the festival in 2025 in the Un Certain Regard section.
