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{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Silences of the Palace
| image = Poster_samt_alqusur.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Moufida Tlatli]]
| producer = Canal Horizon Cinétéléfilms Mat Films
| writer = Moufida Tlatli
| starring = [[Amel Hedhili]] [[Hend Sabri]] [[Najia Ouerghi]] [[Sami Bouajila]] [[Kamel Fazaa]] [[Fatima Ben Saïdane]] [[Kamel Touati]]
| music = [[Anouar Brahem]]
| editing = Moufida Tlatli
| distributor = [[Amorces Diffusion]] [[Capitol Entertainment]]
| released = {{Film date|1994|09|07|France|1994|09|04|Canada|1994|09|30|U.S.|df=y}}
| runtime = 128 minutes
| country = Tunisia
| language = Arabic French
}}
'''''The Silences of the Palace''''' ({{langx|ar|صمت القصور|ṣamt al-quṣūr}}) is a 1994 Tunisian film co-written and directed by [[Moufida Tlatli]]. The film investigates issues of gender, class and sexuality in the Arab world through the lives of two generations of women at a prince's palace. Seen through the eyes of an attractive young wedding singer, it exposes the sexual and social servitude of a group of women in an elaborate palace during the French Protectorate in Tunisia.<ref name=":1" /> Tlatli wrote the film in response to her own mother's sudden severe illness and her subsequent realization of how little she knew about her life. <ref>{{Cite book|url=http://arcade.nyarc.org/search/?searchscope=8&searchtype=o&searcharg=54966350|title=Postcolonial images: studies in North African film|last=Armes|first=Roy|date=2005-01-01|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253344441|location=Bloomington}}</ref>

== Plot ==
Set in 1950s Tunisia, the film is about a 25-year-old woman, Alia, who returns to her place of birth—a prince's palace in which her mother, Khedija, worked as a house servant and mistress.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111055/synopsis?ref_=ttpl_pl_syn|title = The Silences Of The Palace|website = IMDB}} {{unreliable?|date=April 2019}}</ref> Alia had fled the palace ten years earlier, at which time she spent burying tortured memories of her childhood.<ref name="nytimes_review">{{Cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9900EEDB1F3AF933A0575AC0A962958260|title = Movie Review - The Silences of the Palace (1994)|last = James|first = Caryn|date = 30 September 1994|access-date = 5 March 2016}}</ref> In her visit to pay respects for the death of the prince, Alia wanders through the largely abandoned palace where she is confronted by these memories represented as detailed flashbacks of her childhood. She begins to piece together a narrative about her mother's sexuality and sexual exploitation in a space ordered by gender and class difference, and is re-awakened to her persistent questioning about her father's identity.<ref name="nytimes_review"/><ref name="Jadaliyya">{{Cite web|url = http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3024/films-for-the-classroom_silences-of-the-palace|title = Films For The Classroom: Silences of the Palace|last = Sedra|first = Paul|date = 2 November 2011|website = Jadaliyya|access-date = 5 March 2016}}</ref> As Alia negotiates her past, she also deals with her current relationship to her lover, Lotfi, who has asked her to have what seems to be yet another abortion.<ref name="nytimes_review"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url = http://forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2010/02/silences-of-palace.html|title = Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear|last = Hood|first = Nathan|date = 16 February 2010|website = Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear|access-date = 5 March 2016}}</ref> Her development throughout the film contrasts her awakening to a past of sexual and social servitude which many of the female servants experienced in the palace against her own contested independence fraught with pain, conflict and uncertainty.<ref name=":1" />

== Critical reception ==
The film received positive attention at the New York Film Festival in 1994; ''New York Times'' critic Caryn James describes the film as a "universal coming-of-age story with a feminist twist."<ref name="nytimes_review"/> After wider release in 1996, the ''Los Angeles Times'' drew attention to Tlati's depiction of feminist issues in Tunisia and praised her "flowing, sensual style", calling the film "brutal" and "tender".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-03-22-ca-49793-story.html|title=Movie Review : 'Silences' Speaks of Women's Struggles|last=Thomas|first=Kevin|date=1996-03-22|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-03-05}}</ref> Paul Sedra's 2011 article describes the continued relevance of ''Silences of the Palace'' in Arabic studies.<ref name="Jadaliyya"/>

== Awards ==
* [[Toronto International Film Festival]]'s "International Critics' Award" for 1994
* [[Cannes Film Festival]] Golden Camera award for 1994
* [[Sutherland Trophy]] award from the [[British Film Institute]] Awards for 1995
* Golden Tanit of [[Carthage Film Festival]] for 1994
* Golden Tulip award from [[Istanbul International Film Festival]] for 1995

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{imdb title|0111055|The Silences of the Palace}}

{{Sutherland Trophy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silences Of The Palace, The}}
[[Category:1994 films]]
[[Category:Tunisian drama films]]
[[Category:1990s Arabic-language films]]
[[Category:Films set in the 1950s]]
[[Category:Films set in Tunisia]]
[[Category:Films directed by Moufida Tlatli]]
[[Category:1994 drama films]]
[[Category:Arabic-language drama films]]

The Silences of the Palace - Revision history

imported>Sc2353: added Category:Arabic-language drama films using HotCat