Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Coming of age of an Arab boy.......2004-11-21

This moving story gives a believeable, touching account of a Tunisian boy's coming of age. Halfaouine is the name of a popular, working-class neighbourhood of Tunis, where Noura lives. He is first introduced to us as a 13-year-old-boy who is still in his childhood, since he spends all his time with his mother and the women of the house and neighbourhood (this is something children,girls and boys, usually do in a traditoinal Arab soiciety: be always with women). We are shown this in an intimate scene in which Noura's mother is removing the hair from her legs in his company, or when he is with his mother and divorced aunt while they are talking of women's things.

Noura has never paid very much attention to such every day happenings, until, prompted by his adolescent friends, he learns two things: that men do not keep company with women, and that women are fascinating creatures. However, the very same discovery of these two elementary facts means that his childhood has finished for good. Noura's last visit of the hamman in the women's time (again, as children usually do, even if they are boys) is wonderfully hilarious. He just really SEES how women are for the first time, and is duly discovered by histerically screaming women who see a man's (and not a boy's) eyes examining their bodies (he had promised his buddies an exhaustive report of this visit).

But this awakening of Noura will not be restricted to the way of looking at women. The whole neighbourhood, where he has spent all his life, and the people who are around, are different now, too. He, and we through him, begins to see the importance of the reletions between people, and how what people think or say about you can affect your life in such a small place as Halfaouine, where everybody knows each other. He also discovers you can do things considered bad, provided nobody knows about it,while anything you do in the open must be submitted to the judgement of your neighbours...or worse (as is the case with his divorced aunt or his politically rebellious neighbour), in short, he discovers that to be a grown-up you must sacrifice your innocence or suffer the consequences.

But, all in all, being a grown-up seems promising from the vantage point of the "terraces" of Halfaouine, where Noura hangs out all day with his friends, and from which he studies and learns about life.
This film not only gives us an account of the coming-of-age theme, it also offers, through the extraordinary testimony of everyday life, among ordinary people in an Arab city, ample proof that the theme is universal and, as such, an apt way of uniting different cultures through something that we all share.

One of the best books to know North African culture........2000-12-12

This movie introduces foreigners to the Tunisian way of life through this popular quarter of Tunis ville. Plenty of emotions, culture, and history. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:
The Adventures Of Parsley - Cowboys And Indians [1970]
Starring: Gordon Rollings
Director: Ivor Wood
Manufacturer: Abbey Home Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Children's TV | Television | Categories | DVD | Video
All Children's DVD | Children's DVD | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000E1Z6YU
Release Date: 2006-02-27

Customer Reviews:

I'm 16 and I love Arthur!.......2007-09-29

Arthur is the best children's cartoon(beside Spongebob Squarepants) ever created!I bought Arthur on DVD as they don't show Arthur much anymore on British television!Although I've seen all these episodes before,I still really enjoyed them!My only problem is that there are only two Arthur DVD's on here suitable for region 2 DVD players-I want to buy more!So if your reading this Amazon,get more in stock,because I want to buy them!
This DVD is brilliant for both adults and children alike!

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