Beauty and the Dogs

Inspired by a true story, this bruising tale from Tunisia chronicles a young woman's pursuit of legal redress and justice on the night of her rape. Split into nine chapters with each segment completed in a single take, the film starts off innocently enough as 21-year-old Mariam (Mariam Al Ferjani) is dancing away at a student party in a nightclub when she leaves for a liaison with handsome stranger Youssef. Cut to a distraught Mariam after the (off-screen) assault, whose dilemma becomes all-too evident: her assailants are cops. An agonising ordeal then engulfs the traumatised woman as she's confronted by medical intransigence (no ID means no access to a doctor), overcrowded hospitals, unsympathetic police (both male and female), grotesque chauvinism and horrendous hypocrisy. Not unfairly, writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania has an axe to grind with the government of post-revolution Tunisia, however that sometimes eclipses the tribulations and misogyny endured by the vulnerable and tormented Mariam (effectively played by Al Ferjani on her film debut). Nevertheless, it remains a compelling experience.