Nadia El Fani
Nadia El Fani (نادية الفاني; b. 1960 in Paris), is a French-Tunisian director, screenwriter and producer working primarily on documentaries about human rights, women’s rights and secularism. She began working in cinema as an intern on the film Misunderstood (1984), shot in Tunisia, before becoming an assistant director with filmmakers including Roman Polanski, Nouri Bouzid and Franco Zeffirelli. In 1990, she directed her first short film and created her first video production company before relocating to Paris in 2002 during the making of her debut feature, Bedwin Hacker (2003). Thereafter she directed several documentaries, including Même pas mal (2012) in which she compares her struggle with breast cancer to the political battle against Islamic fundamentalism.
Nadia El Fani’s pre-Jasmin Revolution espionage fable follows our hero Kalt as she hijacks the airwaves to broadcast political messages from a remote mountain village in Tunisia. Things quickly turn into a sexually charged game of cat-and-mouse with French intelligence officer Julia as the pair struggle with oppositional missions. Brimming with queer and revolutionary potential Bedwin Hacker is keenly critical of the security apparatus of the French state and its targeting of immigrant communities.