Saïda Ben Mahmoud

Satin Rouge

After the death of her husband, Lilia's life revolves solely around her teenage daughter, Salma. Whilst looking for Salma late one night, Lilia stumbles upon a belly dance cabaret and though initially reserved and taken aback by the culture of the place, Lilia gets consistently drawn back to it. She befriends one of the belly dancers and is encouraged into dancing for the audience. Lilia also starts a romance with one of the cabaret's musicians, who unbeknown to both of them, is also romancing Salma.

Sabriya

This film explores the impact of the modern world on the traditional male society of the Maghreb. It is a film about men who prefer to live life as an abstract game and the free-spirited woman who changes everything. Said and Youssef have fulfilled a life-long dream by opening a "chess bar" in the middle of the desert. They sit around drinking palm wine, playing board games and composing love poetry to imaginary women. All this changes with the arrival of Sarah, a sexually liberated, uninhibited metisse who easily lures Youssef into an affair. Soon he is dreaming not about chess but about opening a coffee bar in Genoa. The friendship is destroyed, the bar sold. Youssef, dressed in Western clothes, waits to leave with Sarah; will she show up? Said boards a train and sits down next to a Westernized woman bearing a resemblance to Sarah

The Fire Dance

Free and a multi-talented artist, Habiba Msika was one of the brightest stars of her time, the twenties. Inspired by the real-life of the artist, the film evokes the last years from 1927.
 Punctuated by the jolts of a changing time, this tumultuous stage in Habiba Msika's life was branded by the love that Mimoun, a wealthy landowner, and Chedly a young poet from a good family, both dedicated to her. In Berlin, during a triumphant tour, she meets the oriental music star, the Iraqi Baghdadi, and is introduced to Parisian life by Peter, and a dandy of disconcerting charm. Back in Tunis, Habiba Msika's life is carried away by the frenetic whirlwind of success, controversies, and thwarted passions until the final tragedy of her death.