red satin (satin rouge) 2002 region free dvd5 arabic bcbc

Red Satin (Satin Rouge) is a 2002 Tunisian film directed by Raja Amari, starring Hiam Abbass, Hend El Fahem, and Maher Kamoun.

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Synopsis

In this drama from Tunisia, Lilia is a recently widowed, middle-aged housewife who begins to explore a new side of her personality. She follows her daughter Salma to her belly-dancing class one day and, after watching the class, is overcome with the urge to start dancing. She also discovers that Salma's having an affair with a musician who works at the dance club and before long, Lilia develops a crush on him too.



Cast

Hiam Abbass, Hend El Fahem, Maher Kamoun, Monia Hichri, Faouzia Badr, Nadra Lamloum, Abou Moez El Fazaa, Salah Miled



Movie Review

Red Satin (Satin Rouge)

August 23, 2002

By Stephen Holden

One way (the crass Hollywood way) of looking at Raja Amari's sweetly upbeat film ''Satin Rouge'' might be to describe it as a Tunisian answer to ''Dirty Dancing.'' The story of a beautiful widowed seamstress from a proper family who rediscovers her sexuality through belly dancing has the same gung-ho vision of the swiveling body as a vehicle toward personal liberation as that sexy 80's hit, in which Patrick Swayze partnered Jennifer Grey into womanhood.



But because ''Satin Rouge'' is set in an Arab country, the social hurdles that the heroine, Lilia (Hiam Abbass), must overcome to achieve her self-discovery are much more formidable than the barriers of age and class dividing the lovers in ''Dirty Dancing.'' Lilia, who lives in the same house with her strait-laced in-laws and rebellious teenage daughter, Salma (Hend El Fahem), feels compelled to keep her evening activities a secret and maintain the facade of a grieving widow who has left her erotic life behind.



That Lilia succeeds in leading a double life for as long as she does isn't especially believable. But the movie, the first feature written and directed Ms. Amari, a Tunisian-born former belly dancer in her early 30's who studied filmmaking in France, is a feel-good feminist fable that in its quiet way is almost as giddily optimistic as ''Dirty Dancing'' or ''Flashdance.''



Lilia's transformation begins when she observes Salma at a belly-dancing class and suspects her of having a romantic attachment to one of the musicians. Investigating further, she visits a cabaret and discovers a sensual underground culture where scantily clad women in sequined costumes dance seductively for wildly appreciative, mostly male audiences.



One of the dancers, Folla (Monia Hichri), befriends Lilia, invites her to try on her costume and shows her a few moves. Before long, Lilia is leading a double life, acting the sober, grieving widow by day, and in the evenings working as a costume designer and part-time dancer at the club, where her underlying demureness lends her an air of mystery that makes her all the more alluring.



Salma, meanwhile, is having a passionate, secret affair with Chokri (Maher Kamoun), the club's handsome percussionist, whom she desperately hopes to marry. But from the moment Lilia begins dancing in the club, Chokri, who has no idea that Lilia is his girlfriend's mother, has eyed her hungrily. When he makes his move, Lilia, against her better judgment, surrenders.



At this point, the movie makes some daringly unexpected choices. Instead of building to one of those screeching confrontations familiar from ''The Jerry Springer Show,'' in which a mother and daughter turn out to be sleeping with the same man and fly at each other in a fury, the story takes a more dignified turn.



The movie, which opens today in New York City, remarkably refuses to pass judgment on any of its characters. Even the two-timing musician is spared its moral condemnation. The movie's attitude toward belly dancing is similarly kindhearted. While acknowledging that many, if not most, of the dancers in the club also work as prostitutes, it focuses on their sisterhood, vitality and humor. Lilia is happy to be a member of this mildly bawdy sorority, in which the philosophical Folla (who resembles a younger Cher) presides as a wise, affectionate den mother. Folla even cheerily accepts that her dancing days are numbered and her enforced retirement looms.



The movie rides on Ms. Abbass's serenely confident performance. As Lilia metamorphoses from a shy housebound widow into a woman calmly rejoicing in her body and her sexuality, Ms. Abbass marks her character's every blush and hesitation in the process of letting go with a winning delicacy and sweetness. ''Satin Rouge'' quietly but unambiguously applauds each tentative step on her path to a fuller life.