Bik Eneich: Un fils (2019)

In 2011, Farès, a Tunisian businessman working in France, spends time in southern Tunisia with his Tunisian wife, Mériem, while the situation on the Libyan border is tense. As they drive north with their son, Aziz, they are caught in a terrorist ambush. Their car escapes, but Aziz is seriously wounded in the abdomen. When they arrive at the hospital in Tataouine, the eleven-year-old boy is in critical condition: his liver is almost entirely destroyed, and a transplant is the only solution. Both parents undergo compatibility tests. Mériem does not have the right blood type, but Farès receives a crushing blow when the results show that he is not the child’s father. The official liver transplant waiting list is long. A race against time begins to find Aziz’s biological father, because in Tunisia, voluntary organ donation is permitted only within the family. But this search also entails accusing Mériem of adultery. Mériem has lost touch with her lover and has not seen him for ten years; she must also face her husband’s reproaches, as he no longer wants to speak to her. Farès is contacted by an organ trafficker who sources organs in Libya and uses corruption among Tunisian authorities to run a private clinic that circumvents the law. Farès eventually accepts the deal, but nothing goes as planned, and his son’s life hangs by a thread.