- At the time of Tunisian independence, owners of large boats decide to sell, while many small fishermen soon find themselves without work. Their wives then decide to pool their gold rings to sell them and thus buy boats.
- The film recounts a peripheral event of Tunisian independence. As soon as this was obtained, owners of fishing fleets decided to sell their boats, causing many fishermen to lose their jobs. The wives of the latter are mobilizing, collecting all their gold rings which, when sold, will make it possible to buy back the boats. The box that opens the film thus pays homage to the women of Mahdia, a Tunisian coastal city, who have won the rise of the national economy, thanks to the mortgage of their jewels and the foundation of the Fish Conservation Mutual. It pays tribute more broadly to the Tunisian woman, "active and emancipated".
The voice of a young man tells how the story of the women of his village has been translated across the country. He takes the time to recount the life of his small community, celebrating the beauty of his town and explaining the importance of the sea and fishing in their culture and economy. Since the dawn of time, he says, men have been fishermen and it cannot be otherwise. Images and words show us an idyllic village, peopled with playful and laughing children, men proud of their work and their lives. There is no wealth in this village, except for the gold rings that married women wear on their ankles. Among the extras, we recognize Claudia Cardinale, then a simple sixteen-year-old high school student in Tunis, who agrees to play in the film only because she is pushed to do so by her father.
But what seemed immutable one day collided with the modern world. A large shipowner - understood to be a settler - takes advantage of the fishermen, plunging the village into starvation. Its fleet of boats hunts fish 25 miles from the coast and fishermen must therefore be towed by its flotilla to reach the fishing grounds, making the villagers completely dependent on the shipowner. Independence does not solve the problem, the big owner has decided to sell his fleet and retire to Sicily. A delegation will ask him for one of the six boats but he asks four million francs from the fishermen. Boats and houses are only worth a million francs in mortgage and it is then that the women collect their golden rings to complete the sum and save their village and their way of life.
The making of the film is credited to Mustapha Alfarissi so that it could compete as a Tunisian film at the 1958 West Berlin Festival, where it won the Silver Bear. A deserved reward for this beautiful solar and humanist fable.
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