The Dead Don’t Die: Slim Sets Adrift in Tedious Metaphors

For his third feature film, Agora, Tunisian director Ala Eddine Slim continues in the realm of allegory, this time infusing elements which suggest arthouse genre. However, the initial enigmatic intrigue about a small town haunted by the past, serving as a microcosm for the world today, quickly loses steam through repetitive gestures which scuttles the pacing through purposeful ambiguity. While the impetus driving the narrative often feels ripe with promise, a trenchant superficiality also minimizes its possibilities rather than broadening it.

Two dead animals share a correspondence as they wither away in a field, predicting something dark and dangerous is on the horizon.…...