Completed - FRENCH, ARABIC - Drama - 95 minutes
A Mediterranean family chronicle stabbed by History.Yasmina and Nouredine under the pressures of an all mighty mother, of a country adrift, and of islamist barbarity.
Year of production : 2015 Director(s) : Salem BRAHIMI Writer(s) : Arezki MELLAL, Salem BRAHIMI Cast : Amazigh KATEB, Rachida BRAKNI Producer(s) : Michele GAVRAS (KG PRODUCTIONS), Kaddour SALAH BRAHIM (AARC), Salem BRAHIMI (BATTAM FILMS)
The late 80s. Idols of the past are staggering in Algeria as in the rest of the world. Socialism is in its death throes. Algeria is importing new idols. Which one will win out? IMF-inspired capitalism? Or Afghan-style Islamism?For Nouredine, a civil servant with literary aspirations, there is only one idol to be challenged: his mother. A lost cause. And so Nouredine will marry the beautiful Yasmina under maternal orders and have a child, Kamel.Soon after this, everything goes wrong: first his marriage, then the whole country that stumbles into violence under Islamist pressure. Nouredine and Yasmina will try to make their way in a society that is collapsing, under absurdity and into Islamist fanaticism and barbarity: these are the 90s in Algeria, the “dark decade”, 200 000 dead.And so Nouredine learns. He learns love thanks to Yasmina and his son Kamel with whom he will reunite. He learns about resistance from his best friend Salah, a brave unionist, and from Yasmina who will never back down facing barbarity. He will learn solidarity from all those around him who refuse to live in fear or to submit to barbarity.Nouredine and Yasmina will try to find happiness in a country that has forgotten all about happiness. And for a few moments, they’ll even think they’ve found it: the birth of their daughter Safia will brings sunshine to their family… Happiness seems possible thanks to the love, the courage, the fraternity and the hope shared with all those at their sides –friends, family- who try to carry on. But nothing can survive Islamist violence.
Country(ies) : FRANCE, ALGERIA
Toronto - TIFF 2015 Contemporary World CinemaDubai DIFF 2015 (SPECIAL JURY PRIZE MUHR FEATURE)