Leyla Bouzid's 'Tres mujeres' premieres at Berlinale, exploring forbidden love and family secrets in Tunisia

At the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid premiered her film 'Tres mujeres' (À voix basse), a story of forbidden love across cultures. The film follows Lilia (Eya Bouteraa), a thirty-something engineer living in Paris, who returns to Tunisia for her uncle's funeral, secretly accompanied by her French girlfriend Alice (Marion Barbeau). During the trip, Lilia uncovers that her uncle was also homosexual, revealing a family mystery through unsent letters, a clandestine circle of friends, and the arrest of his last lover. Bouzid, whose debut film premiered at Venice in 2015 and whose second film closed Cannes Critics' Week in 2021, addresses Tunisia's laws criminalizing homosexuality and the difficulty of living freely. The film highlights generational and gender differences within Lilia's family, including her mother (Hiam Abbass), aunt, and grandmother, who silently recognize Lilia's relationship but do not openly accept it. The film's ending is both hopeful and realistic.