Film guide 1994
The Silences of the Palace
A singer returns to her childhood home and the lives hidden beneath its grandeur.
- Original title
- Les Silences du palais
- Director
- Moufida Tlatli
- Year
- 1994
Editorial profile. Availability on LAREINE TV has not been confirmed.
Story, without spoilers
After a prince’s death, Alia revisits the palace where her mother worked as a servant. Memories of growing up there reveal the distance between the household’s privileged inhabitants and the women who served them. Her return also raises questions about her present life.
Context & recognition
Moufida Tlatli’s first feature screened at Directors’ Fortnight in 1994. Its movement between adulthood and childhood connects Alia’s search for independence with the intimate history of women living under domestic hierarchy.
Main characters & cast
Alia, as an adult
Ghalia Lacroix
A singer returning to the palace of her childhood.
Alia, as a girl
Hend Sabri
The younger Alia discovering the household’s unequal rules.
Khedija
Amel Hedhili
Alia’s mother, a servant seeking to protect her daughter.
