The debut “A Son” function by the sharp Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Barsaoui, “The Son” begins with an outline of the Arab world that appears intentionally designed to buck the preconceptions of Western viewers. Gathered for a picnic, some cosmopolitan Tunisians snicker, drink beer, inform soiled jokes (ensuring the children there are out of earshot), and speculate on politics. It’s the fall of 2011, lower than a yr after the democratization of that nation, and social life is looser than it was.
However, issues are nonetheless harmful. After the outing, Fares (Sami Bouajila, charismatic and slow-burning), spouse Meriam (Najla Ben Abdallah, Boujilla’s equal in charisma in a task that’s extra fraught, in its means) and their younger son Aziz (Youssef Khemiri) head off for a weekend in Tatooine. On the highway within the afternoon, their automotive is ambushed by terrorists, and Aziz is gravely wounded. He’ll want a liver transplant if he’s to stay.
And now the wreckage of the previous comes calling: the seemingly blissful marriage of Fares and Meriam, two very profitable professionals, wasn’t at all times as blissful as what we’ve seen. They each strayed years in the past, and now Meriam learns that Fares just isn’t the organic father of Aziz. His liver gained’t do for a partial donation. And Meriam’s the improper blood kind.
The estrangement that follows this revelation splits the narrative. Meriam searches desperately for the outdated flame who’s Aziz’s smart dad. And Fares …
Properly, Fares is approached by a person who appears to be, like him, ready for information of an affected person in the hospital. Billed solely as “The Businessman” within the credit, and performed by a really refined Slah M’sadak, He makes small speak with Fares at first. “This nation is screwed” is one of all his opening gambits. Ultimately he will get all the way down to instances. For $150,000 dinars (about 50,000 {dollars}), Aziz will get a brand new liver.
The Businessman attracts Fares into his little net steadily. He exhibits him a state-of-the-art facility. He lies, elaborately, of the place the organs come from. He presents himself and the group he represents as do-gooders. And Fares, out of satisfaction (wounded and in any other case), self-delusion, and different character defects that generally manifest themselves significantly devastatingly in males, winds up making a take care of the satan.
Whether or not he can extricate himself from its one query that wants addressing within the film’s final third. Whereas “A Son” has allegorical parables with the political evolution of not simply Tunisia but the entire MENA area, the primary rate-acting, the very credible environments, and the easy, tight-as-a-drum route make it hum with a directness that few social downside films can muster.