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Néjia Ben Mabrouk (born 1 July 1949) is a Tunisian screenwriter and director, known for her work on the award-winning film Sama and on the documentary The Gulf War... What Next?.[citation needed]
Néjia Ben Mabrouk | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 July 1949 El Oudiane, Tunisia |
| Nationality | Tunisian |
| Alma mater | Tunis University INSAS |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, director |
Ben Mabrouk was born at El Oudiane, Tunisia, in 1949 and attended boarding school at Sfax. At a young age, she became familiar with European cinema and joined the local film club.[1]: 380 Concerning her career plans growing up, she explains:
At that time I didn't want to make my own films, perhaps because there were no role models of women as filmmakers. All the directors were men; for me as a young woman, therefore, the more obvious choice was to tell stories through writing. I dreamed of writing novels.[1]: 380
During her college years, Ben Mabrouk first studied French at Tunis University, but had to leave after a few semesters for financial reasons. She began studying filmmaking at INSAS in 1972 at Brussels.[1]: 379 Her film education was largely built on critical documentary film.[1]: 363 She wrote and directed the film At Your Service for her graduation project in 1976, and then worked as a trainee for RTBF.[2]
From 1979 to 1980, Ben Mabrouk started writing the script for her first full-length feature, Sama (The Trace).[3] The film was finished in 1982, but a dispute with the production company SATPEC delayed the film's release until 1988.[2] Sama won the Caligari Prize at the 1989 Berlin International Film Festival.[4] Sama contains autobiographical elements from Ben Mabrouk's life, and tells the story of a young Tunisian girl seeking an education, which she eventually finds exiled in Europe.[3]
She wrote and directed a fifteen-minute segment titled "In Search of Chaima" for the documentary The Gulf War... What Next? (1991), investigating the impact of war on women and children.[2] She has written the screenplay for her second full-length feature, titled Nuit à Tunis (Night in Tunis).[1]: 379
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