Cert TBA
106 mins
BBFC advice: TBA
I can't say I am an expert on Tunisian cinema but this intriguing drama has left me with a desire to experience more.
Director and writer Nejib Belkadhi takes us to the country's heartland where the impoverished locals are dominated by powerful families.
The one highlighted in this film metes out a variety of violence on a cowering population who agree demands for protection money.
However, resentment is starting to build in the man who, since he was abandoned as a baby, has been known as 'Bastardo'.
Abdel Moneem Chouayat plays the quiet hero who wins over the population by installing a telephone mast and provides the phones which bring them into the 21st century.
This puts him on collision course with the village bully-boy (Chedly Arfaoui).
Bastardo has an offbeat battle for power with a glut of David Lynch-esque tangents thrown in.
These include a memorable villager (Lobna Noomene) who is, inexplicably, a magnet for insects which crawl all over her body but don't stop her being at the centre of a tug-of-love between the hero and villain.
Also, the villain's mother is a one-eyed harridan who looks and speaks like a man and is played by actor Lassaad Ben Abdallah.
They add to an intriguing mix in a film which I watched on festivalscope.com.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 6/10