Cinefile

In this month’s Cinefile, Rosslyn Hyams' guests have both made films about feisty women characters. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's feature film Beauty and the Dogs, is about a rape case that became a national scandal in Tunisia. Meanwhile, the documentary Laetitia, by French director Julie Talon, follows a Women's Thai-Boxing champion. REVIEWThe bright colour scheme in Kaouther Ben Hania's feature cloaks a dark story, but one that in real-life had a happy ending. "The former president apologised to the young woman and the family... the guilty policemen were sent to jail," recounts the young director who is currently working on a project revolving around the refugee/migrant issues.The camera follows, and chases after, budding actress Mariam Ferjani in her states of disarray, despair and despondency, quickening and freezing the pace in a sequence of single-take shots from one enclosed space to another corridor. Ben Hania conjures a realistic nightmare sensation as the character Mariam, raped by police,