A Tale of Love and Desire

A Tale of Love and Desire (Une histoire d'amour et de désir) is a 2021 Tunisian drama film directed by Leyla Bouzid and co-produced by Sandra da Fonseca and Olivier Père. The film stars Sami Outalbali and Zbeida Belhajamor in the lead roles whereas Diong-Kéba Tacu, Aurélia Petit, Mahia Zrouki and Bellamine Abdelmalek made supportive roles. The film revolves around a erotic Arabian love affair between Ahmed, a 18-year old, French of Algerian origin, and Farah, a young Tunisian girl.

The film made its premiere on 1 September 2021. The film received positive reviews from critics. The film was selected in the official competition for Best feature film and for the Golden Stallion of Yennenga for Best film.

Cast

 * Sami Outalbali as Ahmed Ouannas
 * Zbeida Belhajamor as Farah Kallel
 * Diong-Kéba Tacu as Saidou
 * Aurélia Petit as Professeur Anne Morel
 * Mahia Zrouki as Dalila
 * Bellamine Abdelmalek as Karim
 * Mathilde Lamusse as Léa
 * Samir El Hakim as Hakim
 * Khemissa Zarouel as Faouzia
 * Sofia Lesaffre as Malika
 * Baptiste Carrion-Weiss as Damien
 * Charles Poitevin as Garçon rue Mouffetard
 * Omar Khasb as Garçon bagarre cité
 * Zaineb Bouzid as Chiraz

Reception
In France, the film averages 4/5 on the AlloCiné from 25 press reviews. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which categorizes reviews as positive or negative only, the film has an approval rating of 100% calculated based on 6 critics comments. By comparison, with the same opinions being calculated using a weighted arithmetic mean, the rating is 6.0/10.