The Silences of the Palace

The Silences of the Palace 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. 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.