Travicity
01-31-2011, 10:02 PM
While the growing unrest in Egypt is playing out before us, the recent overthrow of the government of Tunisia is on its way to becoming a feature film. Tarak Ben Ammar will finance and produce a feature about Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian who set himself ablaze to protest unemployment and lack of freedom. His self-sacrfice set off a historic chain of events that led to the Jasmin Revolution and the overthrow of president Zein El-Abedin Ben Ali. Ben Ammar, a nephew of Tunisia's first independent president Habib Bourguiba, was in Tunisia during the recent revolution because he was there completing production on the Jean-Jacques Annaud-directed Black Gold, the $55 million film which is one of the most expensive films backed by an Arab about an Arab subject. Aside from his film company Quinta Communications, Ben Ammar's Nessma TV was the first media outlet to break the taboo on freedom of expression when it reported on the demonstrations December 30. Messma executives were threatened with jail. "Mohamed Bouazizi has become a hero for us as Tunisians and the Arab world as a whole," Ben Ammar said in a statement. "He performed the ultimate self-sacrifice and in doing so he opened up the eyes and heart of a nation to the injustice all around them. He did it by sacrificing himself, not by hurting anyone else."
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