Synopsis
Beginning of January 2011, during the Tunisian revolution, Mohamed, a popular union leader who is a
political prisoner, manages to escape from jail and returns to his native town Thala. He finds it in the midst
of a revolt. He has only one goal: to find his fiancée Hourya and flee the country through the borders to
Algeria.
Mohamed is helped in his flight by Belgacem a coalman and former agent of the regime who is hoping to be
redeemed. He hides Mohamed in his garage.
On the night of January 9th, Mohamed witnesses yet another slaughter. As he carries the dead body of a
young man to hospital, a young protestor films him on his cell phone and the video is uploaded on
Facebook.
Meanwhile, we discover Hourya who lives with her husband, Adel, a quiet man who has accepted her past
but forbids her of taking part in any political activity. Hourya, helped by her friend Rim, is committed to the
struggle against Ben Ali in Kasserine. When she finishes her work in a textile factory, she risks her life
distributing tracts in the streets crowded with policemen and agents of the regime.
Hourya was raped in prison under Mohamed’s very eyes after their arrest. She believes that Mohamed has
died under torture and to save her own life, she accepted to get married to Adel whom she does not love.
However, her old demons of militancy awaken on the day Bouazizi immolates himself in Sidi Bouzid.
On January 10th morning, in the town of Kasserine, Rim is on the Internet in a cyber café during her lunch
break. She sees the video in which Mohamed carries the dead body and recognises him. She runs to warn
Hourya that Mohamed is in Thala.
The people of Kasserine discover the slaughter of the inhabitants of Thala and riots break out.
Hourya is determined to go to Thala at any price. She is helped by a friend who puts her into an ambulance
going to Thala. But the ambulance is not allowed into the town.
Hourya goes into the town through the fields and woods. She goes to see her mother who enjoins her to
give up Mohamed.
Finally Hourya and Mohamed find each other by chance in the house of a martyr who died the night before.
They spend the night making love and the next morning, Mohamed leads the resistance with the
demonstrators on the streets. He sets up barricades in the streets but is hit by a bullet in his stomach. He
dies in his hometown.
That same night, the town of Thala is liberated from the Ben Ali regime, two days before January 14th.