Film Forum

Erige Sehiri is a French-Tunisian director, producer, and former journalist whose work bridges documentary realism and narrative cinema. Sehiri began her film career in documentary, directing the acclaimed RAILWAY MEN (2018), which captured the daily struggles of Tunisian railway workers. In 2022, she wrote, directed, and produced her first feature, UNDER THE FIG TREES, an intimate portrait of youth, labor, and fleeting moments of connection set in a rural fig orchard. The film premiered at the 54th Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and was selected to represent Tunisia at the 2023 Academy Awards®. It has since screened at major international festivals and been released theatrically in over twenty countries. Beyond her work in film, Sehiri is an active advocate for freedom of expression and media literacy. She is the co-founder of the media INKYFADA and the Tunisian NGO Al KHATT. She is also a founding member of the Rawiyat–Sisters in Film collective, which supports women filmmakers across the Arab world and diaspora. PROMISED SKY, her second feature film, premiered at Cannes Film Festival Official Selection Un Certain Regard.

Devika Girish is the editor of Film Comment magazine and a Talks programmer at the New York Film Festival. She’s a regular contributor to The New York Times, and her work has also been published in The Nation, Sight & Sound, The Criterion Collection and The New York Review of Books. Photo credit: Arin Sang-Urai.


 

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