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What burns, and what remains buried?Not all uprisings come with fireworks. Some smoulder in memory, in silence, in the bodies of women made to serve and perform.
The Sandpit Collective, in partnership with the University of Sussex, continues the Other Asias film programme with the fourth event in our current cycle: Aswaat / Voices—a season dedicated to voice, resistance, and the politics of representation in postcolonial feminist cinema.
Following Feminism Inshallah, Nahla, and Black Medusa, we return on Tuesday 4 November, on the eve of Guy Fawkes Night—a time marked by spectacle and rebellion. While bonfires blaze across Britain, we gather for a quieter confrontation: Silences of the Palace (1994), a landmark in Arab feminist cinema and the directorial debut of the late, great Moufida Tlatli.
Silences of the Palace (Ṣamt al-Qusūr, Tunisia, 1994) | ~128 min
Languages: Arabic and French with English subtitles
Director: Moufida Tlatli | Soundtrack: Anouar Brahem
Doors: 7pm
Screening: 7:30pm
In the fading corridors of a crumbling palace, wedding singer Alia returns to the site of her childhood. Through layered flashbacks, she begins to uncover the silenced life of her mother Khedija—a domestic worker and concubine bound to the estate’s ruling men.
What unfolds is not only a daughter’s reckoning, but a nation’s. Silences of the Palace maps personal trauma onto the architecture of class, gender, and postcolonial legacy. The palace itself becomes a witness: a space where women’s voices are shaped to serve, perform, and disappear—and yet also where resistance quietly ferments.
Tlatli’s cinematic language is subtle and stunning. Silence is not void, but vibration. Brahem’s haunting score carries what can’t be said. Every gaze, every gesture, carries the weight of unspeakable memory.
Join the Dialogue
Stay for a critical conversation:
• How does architecture (the palace) embody power dynamics and gendered silence?
• In what ways does the film map personal trauma onto national history?
• How does Tlatli’s visual and sonic poetry break through inherited silences?
Post-Screening: Move the Silence
While the skies erupt in celebration, we’ll gather indoors for something quieter. The Rose Hill bar becomes a reflective space—part listening room, part release ritual.
Move the Silence invites you to express what words cannot hold. Featuring the ethereal oud compositions of Anouar Brahem—whose music scores the film—as well as a curated selection of North African sounds that will move you as we navigate the space between silence and voice, grief and resilience. Not every revolution is loud—but every silence contains its own fire.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Rose Hill, 70-71 Rose Hill Terrace,Brighton, United Kingdom
