Past Event

Nadia El Fani opening “North Africa at the Crossroads: Culture, Identities, and the Politics of Change” conference at Carleton University on Wednesday April 4th.

The Institute of African Studies at Carleton University is pleased to announce that the celebrated Tunisian director Nadia El Fani will be opening its annual conference for the 2011-12 academic year, “North Africa at the Crossroads: Culture, Identities, and the Politics of Change,” screening and discussing her film “Neither Allah, Nor Master” (2011) on Wednesday April 4th at 7 pm at Carleton University St. Patrick’s Building, room 100.

Nadia El Fani is an award-winning Tunisian film director. Starting in cinema as Assistant Director to such giants as Nouri Bouzid, Franco Zeffirelli and Roman Polanski, she has directed several documentaries and fiction films. Her most important films include Bedwin Hacker (2002), Ouled Lenine [Children of Lenin] (2002) and, her latest, Neither Allah, Nor Master (2011), which was screened at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals. She started production of the latter film before the fall of the Ben Ali regime and completed it after the Revolution. The film, which raises tough questions related to the status of secularism in a predominantly Muslim country, has encountered the ire of Islamists who bombed the theater where the film was supposed to be screened and accused the director of violating the sacredness of Islam. Nadia El Fani was even a recipient of death threats and numerous online ad hominem attacks on Facebook. Her film and engagement remind us of the potential role of the cinema in helping shape debates in societies in transition, in particular, in the aftermath of the Arab Uprising. Nadia El Fani will visit Carleton University in April 2021, to screen her film and take part in the Institute of African Studies organized symposium on the Arab Spring that takes place on Thursday April 5th in the Arts Lounge (Dunton Tower 2017).

More information on the Conference can be found at carleton.ca/africanstudies or through African_studies@carleton.ca.   For further information about Nadia El Fani, please contact Professor Aboubakar Sanogo (aboubakar_sanogo@carleton.ca).