The Girl from Carthage
About The Girl from Carthage
Only the opening of Ain el Ghezal survives. Ain-el-Ghezal, played by Haydée Samama Chikly, loves a teacher, Ahmed Dziri. Her father arranges a marriage to the son of a rich sheik. The lost ending was reported as the couple’s death at the hands of the sheik’s horsemen after they flee on the wedding day.
Cast & crew
More about The Girl from Carthage
Albert Samama Chikly directed this 1924 Tunisian film. Haydée Tamzali is credited with the writing. Mark Smythe composed music. A MoMA note credits the screenplay to Haydée Samama Chikly and says the surviving opening runs 19 minutes, with French intertitles. The 35mm fragment is held by the Archives françaises du film du CNC at Bois d’Arcy.
Themes
Making
The CNC print is what MoMA has shown. It stops after the marriage bargain and does not include the reported flight and killing.
Music
Mark Smythe is credited with the music. The surviving print carries French intertitles.
Preservation
A deteriorated opening, 19 minutes, survives at the Archives françaises du film du CNC in Bois d’Arcy. The rest is lost.
Notes
- Other titles are La fille de Carthage and Ain el Ghezal.
- Hadj Hadi Jebali plays the father in the MoMA credit. Belgassem ben Taïeb plays the sheik’s son. Abdelgassen Ben Taleb and Hadj Hadi Dehali are the names on the English Wikipedia cast list.
- Haydée later said she wrote the story to show women sold into an arranged marriage.
- She was the director’s daughter.
- The fragment is deteriorated. The rest of the picture is lost.
Scenes
- The father and the sheik’s son settle Ain-el-Ghezal’s marriage in the surviving opening.
