Organisers at a major film festival in the Tunisian capital say they will not cancel screenings despite a bloody bombing that killed 13 members of the security forces less than 24 hours earlier.
The 26th annual Carthage Film Festival (JCC), which opened in Tunis on Saturday and also takes place in a dozen other cities across the country, reopened its doors at 6pm local time on Wednesday and will screen about 600 new films over the next week.
On Tuesday evening, a bomb tore through a bus carrying presidential guard soldiers along the Mohamed 5 Boulevard in central Tunis, leaving 13 dead and at least 17 others wounded, including civilians.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack.
After the blast, Tunisian President Baji Caid Essebsi quickly declared a 30-day state of emergency and imposed a night-time curfew on much of the capital.
But JCC director Ibrahim Letaief said the film festival would continue despite widespread fear and the curfew.
“They targeted the security forces,” he told Al Jazeera, “but they seized the moment of the festival.
“The capital is full of foreigners and Tunisians and cinemas were packed,” Letaief said, adding that 58 nationalities were among the attendees.
“It is the happy atmosphere of Tunis that was also targeted. So, when I think about it, the film festival was targeted too.”
When news of the attacks broke, Letaief took the microphone at a cinema on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in central Tunis and informed the audience.