In Nazi-occupied Tunis in 1942, a young Muslim woman (Olympe Borval) and her Jewish best friend (Lizzie Brocheré), each with marriage ahead, try to make sense of a world in which male-dominated occupation extends even to the girls' own bodies. Writer-director Karin Albou (who plays the mother of the Jewish bride) has a sensuous, intimate filmmaking style that overrides The Wedding Song's more precariously loaded plot parallels. And her authoritative depiction of culturally precise, sexually charged feminine rituals (including pleasurable bathing in the hammam and more painful wedding prep) opens a door otherwise locked to outsiders.
