proudly present

LAYLA MA RAISON

Director: Taieb Louhichi Casts: Sid Ahmed Agoumi, Tarik Akan and Fatima Ben Saïdane

Language: Arabic with English Subtitles

Sometimes the ones we love are also our tormentors. Based on the book The Songs by A. Al Asfahani and the eponymous novel by Andre Miguel, this is the story of the desert poet Quays who is unable to “love silently”. He is so in love with his uncle’s daughter, Layla, that he embraces her and mentions her name in all his poems, bringing her entire family’s name into disrepute.

As a result, Layla’s honour-bound father refuses to give her hand to Quays in marriage and the lovers both start going delirious with passion and longing. Quays’s father tries to reconcile the two families, but Layla’s father is resolute. He will not even take advice from the Prince that “lovers should not be separated in the name of tradition”. And so this story of love, art and survival builds towards its inevitably tragic climax – one that only the deft hand of Tunisian writer/director

The screening will be followed by a post-show discussion.

Registration Desk open from 7pm onwards Do arrive early for registrations in order to avoid delay of the screening