Twelve-year-old Noura dangles uncertainly in that difficult netherworld between childhood and adulthood. His growing libido has gotten him banned from the women's baths, where his mother took him when he was younger, but he's not yet old enough to participate in grown-up discussions with the men of his Tunisian village. Noura's only real friend is a troublemaker named Salih -- the village political outcast.
A young teacher arrives to take over a village school isolated in the shimmering desert. Legendary figures materialize out of wells and the desert itself, groups of children hurry through a labyrinth of underground corridors, and the teacher is whisked away to a mysterious rendezvous and never returns.
A documentary filmmaker goes to work on a project about Tunisians who have worked abroad. Many have married French women, and the couples try to adjust to France after many years in Tunisia. The man decides to forego the film in order to address the personal and social concerns of the people trying to cope in their new surroundings. This feature appeared at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.
