Queerness in Tunisia with Bassem ben Brahim

Bassem ben Brahim

In this profile series, Revry is highlighting authentic contributors to the queer media and entertainment community. We ask questions to find out who they are and where they are going in the future. The questions remain the same but the answers tell their unique story. It’s time to explore and celebrate true representation beyond the limits of Hollywood.

Bassem ben Brahim (She,He) is a Queer film director from Tunisia. Bassem graduated in image design at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Nabeul Tunisia. He got his Masters in editing from the School of Audiovisual and Cinema Gammart ESAC. He has directed two animated films; CHROMOPHOBIA and THE RED FISH in 2019 around the issue of gender and sexuality. In 2022 he made his first short documentary NIDHAL which has made various international festivals such as Reeling LGBTQ+ Film Festival; Lovers Film Festival. He is the co-founder of Gender Betounsi, a project on gender culture through the art of animation and painting.

What are you best known for?

My project Gender Betounsi, a platform that contains artistic content between videos, 2d animation, paintings, and comics that talk about gender culture and queer sex with Tunisian Dialect, as well as real exhibitions in a country like Tunisia where homosexuality is punished by 3 years of prison.

What is the first thing you worked on professionally?

I started with editing and animation which allowed me to discover the world of cinema, which opened my eyes to my identity and what I want to do for this world as well as for myself.

What are you working on that no one knows about yet?

For the moment I am working on my second documentary film about the queer community in Big Maghreb.