Watching The Ten Commandments in Gafsa, Tunisia, in the sixtes

Back in the 60s, the cinema in Gafsa showed The Ten Commandments. About a half dozen of my girl students recruited me to chaperone them.

Afterwards, I kept asking my best student, Elgia, who lived in a palm-front hut in the oasis, what she thought of the movie. She seemed embarassed and wouldn’t say anything definite. Finally I persuaded her to tell me, and she said how shocked they had been when Moses (Charleton Heston) had kissed his wife on the mouth!

I, of course, had taken that as perfectly normal. Definitely a cultural difference.