TUNIS, May 29 — Actress Claudia Cardinale may have been a sixties legend of Italian and French cinema, but in Tunisia, in the portside district where she grew up, she says she feels"at home".
"You marked the world of cinema for almost half a century with your dazzling beauty, your charisma and through the roles you played," said Amel Limam, the mayor of La Goulette. Before Tunisia's independence from France in 1956, more than 130,000 Italians were resident, and many of their ancestors had settled there before French colonial rule.
That was the start of a long career that has continued into her 80s. After starring in The Pink Panther opposite David Niven in 1963, she shot to attention in the United States and Britain.L'ile du PardonHer parents never recovered from their departure from Tunisia, which they experienced as an exile.