This is an idyllic image of the possibility for Peace in the world. Filmed on location in La Goulette, Tunisia, a beach resort in northern Africa, the movie tells the simple story of a summer in 1967 just before the Arab - Israel War. There are three families of different religions living side-by-side in an apartment house. The men are close friends and so are their sixteen year old daughters. It looks like the local Tunisians played many of the minor roles, and the characters and situations breathe a life of peaceful coexistence in a place that all agree is Paradise on Earth. One family is planning the wedding of their older daughter. The bachelor elderly landlord is infatuated with one of the daughters. The three teens decide to lose their virginity before the summer is out and seduce three local boys of different religious backgrounds. Claudia Cardinale, a Tunisian-born actress, makes a cameo appearance. All in all, a lovely slice-of-life film which takes the viewer to a simpler time and place when there was hope for Peace and the biggest problems were romance.

Un ete a la goulette is a storie about three fathers of three daughters who are each of a different religion (muslim, Christian and a Jewish). The fathers are struggling to maintain their daughters virginity. However the daughters are young and want to explore their sexuality. This is all set in a small tunisian coastal town in the sixties. The ambiance is very nostalgic (old men playing cards in the local bar). There is also an erotic flavour to it especially when an old rich man falls in love with one of the daughters. The movie is pleasant to watch and very stylish. I gave it eight stars

Un été à La Goulette. Political tensions in the Middle East are the backdrop. During the Summer of 1966. La Goulette, a tourist beach town in Tunisia, near Carthage, North Africa is the locale. Tunisia is now independent of France, the arabs have taken control but other religions remain and are tolerated. The background to the film is the pending Arab-Israeli War, although this is not actually mentioned until the end of the film, and the political tensions begin to mix with the sexual tensions. Three nice seventeen-year-old village girls: Gigi, Sicilian and catholic; Meriem, Tunisian Muslim and Arab; Tina, French and Jewish. They would like to have their first sexual experience during that summer, challenging their families. Their fathers, Youssef, Jojo and Giuseppe, are old friends and their friendship will be in crisis because of the girls, while Hadj, an old rich & horny Arab, would like to marry Meriem. When the girls meet three boys of mixed religions the respective girls fathers come to blows and start to question their so far cordial religious Tolerances. A nice piece of cinema that includes moments of farce, pathos and comedy behind a serious undertone. The village idiot owns the only modern transistor radio that can pick up Radio Beirut. He keeps the villagers informed of the situation whilst they continue listening to their old valve radios of local news whilst playing cards, drinking and talking of times past. The cast is wonderful - largely unknown amateurs with a few old hands. It works very well and has a feelgood factor very similar to such films as Cous Cous.

It would be difficult making this film set in the current century.

Well worth seeing.