The original TikTok: 5 minutes of sheep chaos from 1916 Tunisia.
A herd backs into a dusty courtyard. The sheep, on the ground with their four legs bound, are quickly and skillfully shorn. The animals, now without their fleece, leave one by one, leaping over a narrow channel to allow the shepherds to count them. Everything is crystal clear, efficient, encouraging in a sense – and this goes for both the shearing and the film. Except for the final panning shot of the men grinning at the camera and brandishing shears ready to be put to use. –Andrea Meneghelli
Practical Effects
Real sheep, real shears, real bound legs—no CGI required.
Direction
Chikly's final pan: men grinning with blades. Unsettling?
Director
Albert Samama Chikly
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Albert Samama Chikly was Tunisia's first filmmaker—rare North African auteur in a European-dominated medium.
Meneghelli's 'encouraging' reading ignores the power dynamics: colonized subjects filming colonized labor for likely French audiences.
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