ARABIAN SIGHTS

Noura's Dream

Noura rêve

HINDE BOUJEMAA
Tunisia, Belgium, France, Qatar, 2019
92 minutes, Color
Official website

She works in a hospital laundry room; she is raising three bright children; and while her husband, a petty criminal, does time, she has fallen in love with someone else. Noura (Hend Sabry) wants a divorce. But this is no simple matter, and when her husband is unexpectedly released, expected complications ensue. Noura could be Nora in A Doll's House, or Stella in Streetcar, her wounded husband (and, for that matter, her garage-mechanic boyfriend) a would-be Stanley Kowalski. The potential for domestic violence as payback for female desire pends as heavily as the possible 5-year prison sentence for adultery. Unlike everyone in Noura's life, writer-director Hinde Boujemaa is not trying to make an example of her; she is telling her story, and she does so beautifully and directly. She has the collaboration of Sabry, a Tunisian actress and lawyer, who won last year's Starlight Cinema award at Venice.—Judy Bloch

In Arabic with English subtitles