Soula Bahri plays herself in Salah Issaad’s debut feature, a road movie about a young single mother rejected by her family for dishonouring them and by a society that does not care about people like her. Trying to make it through the night with her baby, she sets out along the roads of Algeria only to find herself caught up, through a series of unfortunate encounters, in a spiral of violence. Soula is an extraordinary portrait of a woman under pressure, both from those closest to her and a society riddled with contradictions.
Up bright and early with their pet in tow, Zohra Bouderbala and her five children are heading to the beach. This is not a drill! In Algiers, the coveted front row spot waits for no one, but it’s not this family’s first time having to beat the summer seaside crowds. The unmotivated and out-of-luck masses who arrive too late will be left to a viewless laze in the sun, the alleged horizon blocked by a fortress of parasols and flowing canopies.
1953, colonized Algeria. Fanon, a young black psychiatrist is appointed head doctor at the Blida-Joinville Hospital. He was putting his theories of ‘Institutional Psychotherapy’ into practice in opposition to the racist theories of the Algies School of Psychiatry, while a war broke out in his own wards.
Chronicles from the Siege portrays the transformation of residents of a war zone as they face the harsh realities of survival. Through five stories, the film presents moments of humanity, dark humor, and difficult choices. In search of food, Arafat encounters a stranger who offers him a piece of bread, prompting reflection on hunger and despair. Young survivors discover VHS tapes in an abandoned store and are torn between burning them for warmth or preserving the past. Walid's addiction to smoking illustrates the absurd inflation of values under siege. Fares risks his safety to spend a moment of intimacy with his girlfriend amid bombings, while Saleh, a war profiteer, desperately searches for blood to save his wife, who is about to give birth. These chronicles explore the challenging decisions people must make under extreme conditions.
In the rocky desert Algerian border country, Fethi and his fellow villagers eke out a living smuggling goods – mostly petrol – into Tunisia, working at night and paying off the local crime lords. Saad, a film-maker trying to raise money to finish his movie, has worked for a year with Fethi. He lives in his family’s shed, included as part of a loving household as well as their risky business. At the same time he is obviously an outsider: smartly dressed and prepared to talk back to anyone, including the imam. Tough, gritty but also moodily atmospheric, its tension sustained by a tumultuous soundscape, theis remarkable film delves deeply into the complexities of family, friendship and daily survival.