Tunisian government supporters in uproar over French documentary

The French documentary, aired on Sunday, focused on the negative consequences of President Kais Saied’s rule in Tunisia.

Anger following a French documentary on Tunisia shedding a light on what it called the “poverty and dictatorship” of President Kais Saied’s rule has continued to be directed towards participants in the film after the country’s prime minister brought attention to the film last week.

Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani’s visit to Paris came a few days before the airing of Between Poverty and Dictatorship, the Great Step Backwards, by the French channel M6 on Sunday.

Speaking alongside his French counterpart Gabriel Attal on Thursday, Hachani decided to devote most of his comments to the film, bringing far more attention to it in the North African country than the filmmakers perhaps expected.

The film examined what it claimed were shrinking freedoms in Tunisia, the country’s struggling economy and the conditions facing sub-Saharan African refugees and migrants who exist at the margins of Tunisian society.

Hachani focused in his remarks on what he termed an “unfriendly act by our French friends” and said it was an attempt to insult Tunisia and harm bilateral relations between Tunis and Paris.