SYNOPSIS… In 1962, at the moment of independence, Jewish and European minority communities left Algeria. 43 years after the mass exodus of Jews and Pieds-noirs to France following the independence of Algeria in 1962, what remains of this cohabitation in the memory of Algerians of Berber-Arab-Muslim origins? Four Algerian Muslim characters seek the truth about […]
SYNOPSIS…
In 1962, at the moment of independence, Jewish and European minority communities left Algeria.
43 years after the mass exodus of Jews and Pieds-noirs to France following the independence of Algeria in 1962, what remains of this cohabitation in the memory of Algerians of Berber-Arab-Muslim origins?
Four Algerian Muslim characters seek the truth about of their own lives, look back on the last years of the war from 1955 to 1962, that were also the final years of French colonization. Between hatred and fraternity, they lead us into a hidden memory, that of the relations with their Jewish and Christian neighbors.
Moving between five regions of Algeria, from east to west from Setif to Oran, going back over the last two decades of the colony we reconstitute a hitherto unpublished portrait of this ‘European’ community by those men and women who mixed with them.
With our protagonists. we revisit the founding myths of the new Algeria …
But will they find a resolution to their personal myths?
Suspicion, fear and unhappiness, certainly but were not intercommunal relations also attraction, respect, recognition and happy memories?
Was not a new identity emerging, formed of mutual borrowings, of which its various components were unaware?
Was it not possible to build a multiethnic Algeria of freedom and solidarity?
Whether our quest supports our most basic conviction or whether it disputes it we will follow the universal path of the tragedy the ending of which seemed to be inevitable to the protagonists.
…and TECHNICAL INFORMATION
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2.36, 35mm, colour, 1/85, Sound: DTS.
Direction and Scenario : Jean-Pierre LLEDO; Photography : Othmane Abbane; Sound : Mohamed Redha Belazougui; Editing : Kahena Attia; Director’s Assistant: Bahia Bencheïkh El Feggoune. Director’s Production : Serge Lledo.
ALGERIAN-FRENCH PRODUCTION – 2007
Algeria : Naouel Films, Jean-Pierre Lledo, Rachida Lledo ; and Algerian TV (ENTV).
France : Mille et Une Productions, Edouard Mauriat, Anne Cécile Berthomeau
Spain: MLK, José Antonio Hergueta, Associate producer
Diffusion in France : Colifilms.
Original version: Arabic and French. Subtitled in French, English and Hebrew.
With: Aziz Mouats at Skikda, Katiba Hocine in Algiers, Hamid Bouhrour in Constantine, Kheireddine Lardjam in Oran.
Song: Hayet Ayad
Festivals : 2007 : Toronto. Amiens. 2008 : Fribourg. Montréal. Tribeca–New York. Tétouan. Beyrouth. Tarifa. Jérusalem. Cambridge. Vancouver. Frankfurt. Stockholm…
Additional Reading
- About the Movie Algeria, Unspoken Stories
- The Unspeakable: Representations of Trauma in Francophone Literature and Art
- The Unspeakable: Representations of Trauma in Francophone Literature and Art
- Festivals Algeria, Unspoken Stories
- Opinion of New York’s spectator
- TIME OUT - New York. Peter Chiu
- Telling the Untold Tales
