Private Project

Papi, How Did You Spend Your Youth?

In Tunis, Gilbert Nakache, alias Papi, 80-year-old writer and communist activist, who suffered from a stroke, tells himself all day long the story of his life, which he wrote in prison on a pack of cigarettes, mixing tragedy and comic. In Brussels, his 25-year-old son Slim uses theater to try to settle scores with his father's time.

  • Akram Adouani
    Director
  • Akram Adouani
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Genres:
    Biography, History, Social-Political, Human Rights, Memory, Human, Youth, Generation, Africa, Arabic World, Canada
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 1, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Tunisia
  • Language:
    Arabic, French
  • Shooting Format:
    2K
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Carthage Film Festival 2021
    Tunis
    Tunisia
    North African premiere
    Official Competition
  • Vues d'Afrique 2021
    Montreal
    Canada
    Canadian premiere
    Official Competition
  • Festival International du Film des Droits de l'Homme
    Tunis
    Tunisia
    March 20, 2022
    Official Competition
Distribution Information
  • Aljazeera Documentary Channel
    Distributor
    Country: Qatar
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Akram Adouani

Akram Adouani studied Cinema at the University of Montreal and The Ecole des Arts et du Cinema in Tunis. He was novel writer at 15-years-old, with « WITHOUT IDENTITY ».
He started in Cinema as an editor for the documentary series HISTOIRES EN MEDITERRANEE (2005) produced in Tunisia and, as assistant director, he was involved in the short documentary SUK-EL GRANA produced with the support of Fondazione Mediterraneo (Italy, 2007).

He co-directed the awardwinning documentaries THE ENEMY WITHIN (Italy, 2009), screened in Sole Luna Film Festival, Palermo (2009) and broadcasted by Aljazeera English Channel . His film Abdelkader (2015) was selected, among others, in the main competition at the Alexandria Film Festival (Egypt 2016).

He was also Unit Production Manager in Europe for the film HANTED PAST by Fatma Riahi (2018), screened at Hot Docs 2019 and IDFA 2018.

He is currently working on the pre-production of his first feature length film CARNIVAL, and on the post-production of THE HUNTER OF TORTURERS, a lenght documentary film produced by Aljazeera.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"What did you spend your youth? "Is a line from the poem Verlaine wrote in prison. I knew Verlaine’s poems, and his companion Rambaud’s, before knowing Gilbert Nakache. And I knew Gilbert Nakache's book "What did you do with your youth? ", where he tells the story of his fight against colonization and dictatorship in Tunisia, before meeting this guru of the Tunisian communist movement.
I was an activist in the student movement at the time, and we shared in secret the books of Gilbert Nakache. Or Papi, as everyone calls him. As if he had become the father of a whole generation, and not only of his son Slim. And then met Slim.. many years later. From this meeting is this film born.