Producer Tarak Ben Ammar to Produce Feature Film About Mohamed Bouazizi

LONDON -- Producer Tarak Ben Ammar is planning to produce and fully finance a feature film based on the Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi.

Bouazizi's actions, when he set himself on fire to protest about unemployment and the lack of freedoms in Tunisia in December last year, set off a historic chain of events this month that led to the Jasmin Revolution in Tunisia and the overthrow of Tunisian president Zein El-Abedin Ben Ali after 23 years in power.

The movie is timely set against the backdrop of the current protests in Egypt and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East.

"Mohamed Bouazizi performed the ultimate self-sacrifice and in doing so he opened up the eyes and heart of a nation to the injustice all around them. What's more, he did that by sacrificing himself, not by hurting anyone else," said Tarak Ben Ammar. "His call for freedom, dignity and jobs has become a rallying cry for the youth across the whole region.

Ben Ammar said he would work with Bouazizi's family and that all profits from the film will go to Bouazizi's family.

The project, which will be filmed entirely in Tunisia, will go into production later this year, Ben Ammar said.

Ben Ammar, a nephew of Tunisia's first ever independent president Habib Bourguiba, was in Tunisia during the revolution as he completed production on Jean-Jacques Annaud's Black Gold.