The Silences of the Palace

The Silences of the Palace
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMoufida Tlatli
Written byMoufida Tlatli
Produced byCanal Horizon
Cinétéléfilms
Mat Films
StarringAmel Hedhili
Hend Sabri
Najia Ouerghi
Sami Bouajila
Kamel Fazaa
Fatima Ben Saïdane
Kamel Touati
Edited byMoufida Tlatli
Music byAnouar Brahem
Distributed byAmorces Diffusion
Capitol Entertainment
Release dates
  • 7 September 1994 (1994-09-07) (France)
  • 4 September 1994 (1994-09-04) (Canada)
  • 30 September 1994 (1994-09-30) (U.S.)
Running time
128 minutes
CountryTunisia
LanguagesArabic
French

The Silences of the Palace (Arabic: صمت القصور, romanizedṣamt al-quṣūr) is a 1994 Tunisian film co-written and directed by Moufida Tlatli. The film investigates issues of gender, class and sexuality in the Arab world through the lives of two generations of women at a prince's palace. Seen through the eyes of an attractive young wedding singer, it exposes the sexual and social servitude of a group of women in an elaborate palace during the French Protectorate in Tunisia.[1] Tlatli wrote the film in response to her own mother's sudden severe illness and her subsequent realization of how little she knew about her life. [2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Armes, Roy (1 January 2005). Postcolonial images: studies in North African film. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253344441.