Satin Rouge

Directed by Raja Amari. (Tunisia 2002).

A widowed Tunisian seamstress takes an unlikely journey of self-discovery in this sumptuous and sensual debut film.

While investigating a suspected liaison between her headstrong teenaged daughter and a cabaret musician, young widow Lilia becomes drawn to an exotic nightclub netherworld of Rubenesque belly dancers and nocturnal pleasure-seekers.

She strikes up a friendship with one of the dancers, then eventually takes the stage herself – quickly becoming the favorite of both cabaret patrons and the club's hot-blooded drummer.

This contact with a world unknown to her turns her life upside down.