Three young women, close friends from the same working class environment, but from different religions, make a vow in La Goulette’s cathedral before the statue of the Virgin of Trapani to lose their virginity before their sixteenth birthday. Another set of friendships involve the fathers of the three girls, Youssef, a Muslim and tram worker, and his best buddies Jojo, a Jew who sells a quintessential Tunisian delicacy (brik, a pastry fried in olive oil), and Giuseppe, a fisherman. that families of different faiths resided in the same buildings in very intimate spatial proximity, often sharing prized Tunisian culinary dishes with each other.
The bad guy is Hadj Beji, the proprietor of the apartments where the families reside, who has recently returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca affecting “Eastern” manners; despite his pretentions of piety, Hadj Beji, an older man, lusts after Youssef’s daughter. religion presents few barriers to residential cohabitation, socializing, or employment, although cross-religious sexual relations or marriages rarely occur, and if they do, social uproar ensues. the film unmasks the complexity of women and gender relations in a majority Muslim nation, as indexed by dress or clothing, a critical social marker. Some women still wear the traditional white safsari or cloak over their clothes when in public, others sport the latest fashion the fathers reconcile . the Six Day War breaks out in the Middle East, which will divide Jews and Arabs the world over. the kind of world that we see in La Goulette, where—for a brief time—religions, races, and cultures could live together in a volatile but ultimately harmonious state of friendship and mutual support.