Du scénario original à la traduction audiovisuelle multilingue : les leviers du rayonnement mondial du film Dachra d’Abdelhamid Bouchnak From the Original Screenplay to Multilingual Audiovisual Translation: Drivers of the Global Reach of Abdelhamid Bouchnak’s Film Dachra

Abstract

Within contemporary Tunisian cinema, Dachra (2018), directed by Abdelhamid Bouchnak, marks a significant turning point by establishing an unprecedented model of artistic, cultural, and international success. As Tunisia’s first feature-length horror film, it is also notable for its independent production model and exceptional domestic reception, exceeding 100,000 admissions during its first week of theatrical release (Hakka, 2019). Beyond this national achievement, Dachra has become one of the most widely circulated Tunisian productions internationally, supported by a distribution strategy based on multiple modes of audiovisual translation. This study examines the extent to which audiovisual translation strategies contributed to the film’s international reach. It adopts a qualitative case-study approach that combines film analysis, translation analysis, and a comparative examination of excerpts from the original Tunisian version, the Spanish dubbed version, and the English and Korean subtitled versions. The findings indicate that Dachra’s international success cannot be attributed to audiovisual translation alone. Rather, it results from the convergence of several complementary factors, including the film’s innovative positioning within the horror genre, its strong grounding in the Tunisian sociocultural imagination, the universal resonance of its themes, and the adaptation of its distribution strategy to the linguistic specificities of different international markets. The comparative analysis further shows that dubbing and subtitling fulfil complementary functions as forms of cultural mediation. While dubbing enhances immersion and narrative accessibility for target audiences, subtitling more effectively preserves the linguistic and cultural features of the original work. The study thus positions audiovisual translation as a strategic driver of the international circulation of cinematic works, while emphasising that its effectiveness remains closely tied to a film’s narrative, aesthetic, and cultural qualities.