An investigation into witchcraft leads a trio of journalism students to a mysterious town marked by sinister rituals. Inspired by true events.
There haven’t been many horror films made in North Africa but Tunisian director Abdelhamid Bouchnak is looking to change that with his debut “Dachra.” While Tunisia faced a promising change during the Arab Spring back in 2011, Bouchnak isn’t focused on politics. His film is inspired by African and Arabic folklore – where witchcraft is used – to charm lovers and enact revenge.
“Dachra” begins with two men sacrificing a child who they believe holds a special power within his eye. Bouchnak tastefully pans the camera away from the act showing only the blood flow. The stone used for the killing looks like a marble globe afterward, then men scrub it clean.
Yassmine (Yassmine Dimassi), Bilel (Bilel Slatnia), and Walid (Aziz Jebali) are journalism students. While in class, their professor assigns the group to find a unique story and produce it. Waled hears there’s a patient named Mongia who was found as a child with her throat slit. They want to make Mongia their next story: Yassmine will interview, Walid will handle sound, and Bilel will film. Yassmine lives with her overprotective grandfather who regularly recites passages from the Koran to keep harmful spirits away. That night Yassmine is haunted by visions of a veiled woman reaching out for her with a twisted hand.
The next morning, the three students head to the hospital and are met with resistance from the administrator. He refuses them entry after Yassmine presses on about Mongia and how witchcraft is actually mentioned in the Koran. Determined to get in, Walid bribes a nurse to allow them to film. The nurse tells them some supernatural tidbits: Mongia fasted but didn’t lose weight, she bit a staff member’s ear off, and apparently, she’s indestructible. When the trio finally sees the ghastly woman chained to the wall, she springs up, digging her nails into Yassmine’s arm shouting “It’s you!” Walid kicks Mongia and the three flee outside the room. Yassmine continues to have nightmares of the veiled woman.
Bouchnak makes wonderful use of long takes, static shots, and lighting has an overcast morbid chill. His framing is really effective with the camera being slightly off-kilter throughout. Bouchnak stated he was inspired by “Midsommar” and Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” – this is quite clear especially when the three get lost in a foggy forest – the camera becomes voyeuristic, watching them trek along. After chasing a possessed child through the forest, they stumble upon an isolated town that’s not on the map. In the town, there are obscene amounts of meat being hung, prepared, and served. Before long the students begin to feel like they might be next on the menu.
The title “Dachra” is an Arabic word for an isolated village and there’s some interesting commentary on ancient traditions in rural villages clashing with the modern world. The theme of cannibalism is so frightening and can be repulsive but Bouchnak keeps the gore to a minimum until the final act. All these elements make “Dachra” fall into what Mark Fisher referred to as “The Eerie” in his exceptional book of essays ‘The Weird and The Eerie.’ Fisher writes: “The eerie, by contrast, is constituted by a failure of absence or by a failure of presence. The sensation of the eerie occurs either when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there nothing present when there should be something.” While there’s a fair amount of the supernatural eerie on display, the story is also rooted in faith and redemption. I plan to come back for a second helping!
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