Tunisian ecodocumentary: Time and the representation of environmental injustice

During Tunisia’s first post-revolutionary decade (2011–21), a filmic subgenre new to the country emerged: ecodocumentary. This article, a first to examine Tunisian ecocinema, argues that filmmakers challenge narratives of modernity, capitalism and revolution by highlighting the temporal aspects of environmental injustice, notably its systemic theft of time. In ways both explicit and implicit, ecodocumentarists echo their participants’ denunciation of a ‘so-called revolution’ that had sought to propel everyone into a shared, egalitarian modernity. Tunisian ecodocumentary emphasizes the contemporaneity of environmental injustice by revealing its perpetual economic asymmetries. Thus, Tunisian ecocinema at once advocates for environmental justice and reshapes the ecologies of Tunisian cinema itself.