'Beauty and the Dogs' details Tunisian woman's post-rape ordeal

The Tunisian drama ``Beauty and the Dogs'' tells a politically charged and important story and uses an intriguing structure. Alas, this tale of a young rape victim further brutalized by officialdom never lives up to its potential.

The film takes place after the Tunisian Revolution of 2010-11, which resulted in some much-needed democratic reforms. But in ``Beauty and the Dogs,'' filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (``The Blade of Tunis'') suggests that there is still a lot of work to be done.

Mariam (Mariam Al Ferjani) is a university student attending a party, where she meets, and leaves with, an attractive young man named Youssef (Ghanem Zrelli). Her revealing dress is borrowed and worn with some reluctance. She is next seen running down the street in tears, with Youssef pursuing, and we assume he has molested her.

She has in fact been assaulted, but not by Youssef, who will turn out to be her best friend in the following ordeal. She was raped by police officers in the back of a patrol car. Here begins a hellish journey through an unsympathetic and even hostile bureaucracy that not only withholds the help she needs, but suggests that she must deserve what happened to her.

Mariam needs a medical certificate that she was raped before the police will aid her. A clinic Youssef takes her to turns her away because she has no ID (her purse was left in the police car). It's after curfew, so she can't return to the dormitory where she lives. Though she rightly doesn't trust the police, she has no alternative but to appeal to them for help.

But the mostly male hospital and police officials treat her with a decided lack of sympathy, and sometimes become openly accusatory. A female nurse and a female cop are somewhat more friendly, though in the cop's case, only slightly more so.

Youssef has been trying to aid her quest for medical treatment and justice, but he is quickly recognized by the police as a onetime anti-government demonstrator, and dragged off to a jail cell.

Ben Hania recounts the story in nine numbered chapters, each of which appears to have been shot in a single take. The intention may have been to create a sense of Miriam's ordeal unfolding in real time, but in the end, it's hard to say exactly what this structure accomplishes, and one hopes that it is more than just a filmmaker's whim.

Another issue is that the male officials are villainous to the point of caricature. The idea, I'm guessing, is to underline the nightmarishness of Mariam's experience, but the unintended effect is to diminish the emotional impact because the dice seem so loaded.

It's too bad, because Mariam shows intestinal fortitude in pursuing justice against such long odds. There's a ponderousness at times that undermines the film's case and interferes with our sympathy for its heroine.

Beauty and the Dogs

2 STARS OUT OF 4 STARS Drama. With Mariam Al Ferjani, Ghanem Zrelli. Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. In Arabic with English subtitles. Not rated. 100 minutes.