Moufida Tlatli, the pioneering Tunisian film-maker hailed as the first Arab woman to direct a feature film, has died aged 73.
Tlatli remains best known for her breakthrough 1994 feature The Silences of the Palace, a lyrical study of a woman’s return to an abandoned royal residence, which tackled the themes of exploitation and trauma as experienced across generations of Arab women.
Like Silences of the Palace, The Season of Men found much favour on the international film circuit, winning a number of awards.
The film was inspired by her mother’s difficult life; in 2001, Tlatli told the Guardian she “was riven with guilt …