Mohamed Bouazizi & Tunisian Uprising Getting Film Treatment
The story goes… in December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi was a college-educated 26-year-old Tunisian (the North African country on the Mediterranean sea), who, like millions of other angry, frustrated and resentful Tunisians, faced the unpleasant combination of unemployment and rising inflation, at the hands of a government seen as corrupt and dictatorial.
To make ends meet, Bouazizi sold fruits and vegetables from a cart, though he didn’t have a license to see, which led to his produce being confiscated by authorities, further enraging an already incensed Bouazizi, who then soaked himself in gasoline and set himself on fire just outside the governor’s office.
Bouazizi survived the initial attempt, but would later die, on January 4th, in a hospital near Tunis, after he was visited by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Bouazizi’s act and death inspired widespread revolt, and 10 days later, on January 14, amid escalating violence and opposition, the President fled the country.
During Bouazizi’s funeral, it was reported that marchers chanted “farewell, Mohamed, we will avenge you. We weep for you today, we will make those who caused your death weep.”
Today brings news that a feature film based on Bouazizi’s story, and the eventual overthrow of the Tunisian government, will be made into a film.
Tarak Ben Ammar, nephew of Tunisia’s first independent president Habib Bourguiba, and owner of French production and distribution company Quinta Communications, will finance and produce.
“Mohamed Bouazizi has become a hero for us as Tunisians and the Arab world as a whole… 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,” Ben Ammar said in a statement.
Watch the Al Jazeera report below for more: