Please note: The 7:30 program will be attended by a class and is therefore likely to be crowded; viewers are advised to arrive early (box office opens at 6:45) or to plan to attend the 9:30 show.

Aziza, the story of a young woman's tentative emancipation, is a tale inextricably linked to its setting: Tunis, 1980, a Third World metropolis in the throes of transformation. Aziza is a country orphan who moves to the city with the aging uncle who has supported her since childhood, and the brash young cousin who plans to provide all of them with a better life. For Aziza, a day in the city is much like a day in the country: she stays at home, cooking and cleaning, while the men engage with the outside world. But when her cousin's pipe dreams send the family finances up in smoke, she makes her move. She takes a room with a new friend, a spunky television actress, and finds her first paying job in a textile mill. Finding that even the boredom of factory work is preferable to the centuries-old ritual of domestic labor, Aziza inches toward self-discovery. Writer-director Abdeltif Ben Ammar's compassion for the contradictory feelings of North African women as they and their societies both emerge from colonization gives the film a perceptive and intimate tone, while Yasmine Khlat's highly praised performance lends it dramatic authenticity. Aziza was featured in the Museum of Modern Art, New York's New Directors, New Films series for 1981.