VHS--Kahloucha

Director: Nejib Belkadhi

Institute History

  • 2007 Sundance Film Festival

Description

On a snowy night in Italy, homesick Tunisian immigrants borrow a TV and VCR and gather in a basement to watch the latest movie from their favorite filmmaker. Nejib Belkadhi's fun and energetic VHS—Kahloucha is a celebration of the method, madness, and magic of amateur Tunisian filmmaker Moncef Kahloucha.

Kahloucha, a house painter with an infectious personality and a love for '70s genre film, shoots hilarious features on a VHS Panasonic 3500 and claims such hits as I Had No Money and Now I'm Loaded and Misery to Get Rid of the Booze. He is shooting his latest feature, Tarzan of the Arabs, when Belkadhi catches up with him in Kazmet, a poor district in Sousse, Tunisia. Running to keep up, Belkadhi follows Kahloucha as he recruits locals away from their dull lives to star in his movies and stages action scenes where characters are shot dead and decorated with Kahloucha's own blood. All the while, Kahloucha sweatily works to conceal the identity of his favorite actress, a spicy 70-something woman who constantly defies her husband's brutal attempts to pull her off the set.

Underlying Kaloucha's hysterical machinations is a profound passion for film and the redemptive power of moviemaking for a poor community that totters on the edge of despair.

— Shari Frilot

Screening Details

Credits

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]