Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation

Bleak and unnerving supernatural drama Ashkal begins as an abstract study of crumbling gray structures, suddenly interrupted by the roiling, oily flames of a fire. The burning is what brings two detectives – straitlaced but hair-trigger Fatma (Oussaifi) and grizzled, secretive family man Batal (Grayaa) – to the misleadingly named Gardens of Carthage.

The crumbling high-rise mass is an unfinished and abandoned development just outside of Tunis, a modern relic of the 2010 Jasmine Revolution and the removal of elected dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The source of the fire was the body of a security guard, assigned to patrol this skeleton of history, his death a seeming suicide that baffles but doesn't shock the cops. After all, death by self-immolation is a part of Tunisian political history, the Jasmine Revolution having been instigated by the public suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor abused by the government to irreparable despair. And the one great truth of fire is that it spreads, so just as Bouazizi's act became a conflagration that engulfed a nation, so that inexplicable death in Ashkal takes more and more seemingly willing victims.

In the script from François-Michel Allegrini and director Youssef Chebbi, the scarcely buried history of the Ben Ali regime is never far from the surface: Batal is an old-school cop who seemingly turned a blind eye to what his colleagues were doing in back rooms (over dinner, he literally delivers the "we were only following orders" line), while Fatma's own father is heading up the public commission to clean up the police force. Both are outsiders with their own dirty little secrets, and that combination of sliding scales of personal corruption and sinister forces behind real estate deals makes Ashkal the kind of police beat that James Ellroy would recognize. It's that holy flame, and the question of whether it's punitive or purgative, that lends this modern noir a more metaphorical glow.

Ashkal is a deeply political film, sweating Tunisia's recent politics but also serving as a broader allegory for repression, rebellion, and how easily the sins of the past can be repeated. An international co-production reflecting Tunisia's history and cultural diversity, filtered through composer Thomas Kuratli's score that melds European orchestral works with North African traditional works and the call to prayer. It's an undeniable slow burn, with cinematographer Hazem Berrabah constantly placing the characters – themselves often static – within these monolithic structures of reinforced concrete, an indication of the depressingly immutable nature of power. The resolution is purposefully yet powerfully enigmatic, in a fashion that transcends both the police procedural of the opening acts and the details of Tunisian political history. That said, Ashkal may well inspire you beyond the chills contained in this superb supernatural noir. Maybe you'll learn more about this often-ignored nation. But you'll definitely be disturbed and fascinated by a chilling depiction of buried crimes.

Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation is available on VOD from Aug. 22.