Director: Lotfi Achour
Tunisian director Lotfi Achour builds "Red Path" (2025) around a single, unbearable errand a boy is forced to run, turning a small border region into the whole of a nation's grief.
What is Red Path about?
Fourteen-year-old Achraf and his older cousin Nizar are out tending sheep when armed men descend on them without warning. What follows upends Achraf's world: he is made to carry a grim token back to his family as proof of what happened, and the film tracks the walk home as much as the aftermath. Rather than dwelling on the violence itself, the story stays close to Achraf's point of view, letting silence, landscape, and the reactions of relatives carry the weight. Achour, working from an account rooted in real events near the Tunisia-Algeria border, resists easy explanation of the men responsible, focusing instead on how a community absorbs shock and keeps functioning. The pacing is deliberate, almost documentary in feel, with long stretches where nothing is said and everything is felt. By the film's end, Achraf is changed in ways the people around him can sense but not fully name.
Cast & crew
Newcomer Ali Helali carries the film as Achraf with a restraint well beyond his years, while Yassine Samouni gives Nizar a warmth that makes his fate land harder. Wided Dabebi, Younes Naouar, and Latifa Gafsi round out the family circle, each given room to register grief without melodrama.
Context & significance
"Red Path" is a multi-country co-production spanning Belgium, France, Poland, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, reflecting how much film financing in North Africa now depends on pooled European and Gulf backing. It arrives from Achour, whose earlier work also examined how ordinary Tunisians live alongside instability at the country's edges. The film carries an IMDb rating of 6.9 and runs 101 minutes.
Where & how to watch
"Red Path" is available to watch on K-Time with a free account login; no purchase is required to read this page or browse the catalog. K-Time's interface is built around Farsi, so Persian-speaking viewers can navigate menus and search comfortably even when a title itself, like this one, doesn't include Persian subtitles or dubbing.