In the Gardens of Carthage—an eerie, crumbling wasteland in Tunis, which was meant to be a luxury district until the Jasmine Revolution began—a burnt body has been discovered. Enter detectives Fatma (Fatma Oussaifi) and Batal (Mohamed Houcine Grayaa), who are charged with getting to the bottom of this mysterious death. As a public inquiry into police abuse under the dictator Ben Ali, headed by Fatma’s own father, threatens to undermine or destroy the careers of many of her fellow officers—something that makes Fatma increasingly unpopular—another self-immolated body shows up… Director Youssef Chebbi’s neo-noir thriller mixes the political and the metaphysical to chilling effect.

‘Overall, Ashkal deftly creates a lean but thoughtful gallery of contemporary Tunisian moral quandaries, while weaving an eerie and engaging detective story that dips into the [uncanny] just enough to qualify it as a heady, Halloween-ready chiller.’—Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller, FilmDaze