A Tale of Love and Desire: essentially a coming-of-age story, what sets Leyla Bouzid’s film apart is its set of characters, a young French-Algerian man and Tunisian woman. Even further, it looks at the paradox of being an Arab, which has a rich tradition of eroticism and Epicureanism but also a strong adherence to conservative values, to say the least. That duality shows up in the protagonist, played by Sami Outalbali; he is an intelligent, serious, and sensitive young man who has his traditional beliefs thrown in his face as he meets the carefree classmate played by Zbeida Belhajamor. His performance is limited by the stiffness of his character, while hers is more engaging, again due to the nature of her character and her arch. Nicely captured by cinematographer Sébastien Goepfert.