Saha Dahmane

Film about Dahmane El Harrachi, musician, singer and composer of the famous song "Ya Rayah", a cult song covered by Rachid Taha, which will enjoy international success. Virtuoso of the banjo, the work of Dahmane El Harrachi did not initially respond to the canons of the purists of Algiers Chaâbi song. However, he will end up establishing himself alongside great masters of the genre, El Hadj M'hamed El Anka, Boudjemaâ El Ankis, El Hachemi Guerouabi, Amar Ezzahi... He plays his own role in this film shot with his musician friends, just before his tragic death in 1980 in a car accident on the Corniche of Algiers.

The Harem of Madame Osmane

In Algiers in 1993, while the civil war is starting, Mrs Osmane's tenants have to endure her bad temper. Her husband left her and the fear to lose her respectability haunt her. The former member of the Resistance during the Independence War persists in controlling the slightest moves of the households rather than struggle against her own frustrations. Learning her daughter is in love, the possibility of finding herself alone will push her to the limit: The symbolical Mrs Osmane "harem" is about to collapse.

Ikach

Ikach, is a farce in two acts in popular Arabic, written by André Sarrouy and adapted and directed by himself. A critique of marriage in colonial Algeria at a time when women were little taken into account. Cunning of women and stupidity of husbands, on an original soundtrack composed by Mohamed Iguerbouchène.

Kaddour à Paris

Baya's Mountain

Set in the 1800s among the Berbers of North Africa, this 1997 Algerian feature concerns a noble widow who receives a customary purse of gold coins from the enemy tribe that murdered her husband; the gift puts her in conflict with her kinsmen, who want the money to buy back land taken by the enemy in cahoots with French colonials.

The Forgotten Hill

At the outbreak of the Second World War, two friends, Mokrane and Menach, abruptly interrupt their studies and return to their remote native Kabylian village of Tagsa. While waiting to be drafted into the French Army they have time to woo. Mokrane falls for beautiful Aazi and soon marries her only to find out that she can bear no child. Menach, on his part, is stongly attracted to Davda, but the latter is already married to a rich merchant...Happiness does not seem to be in store for the two former students...

The King of Algiers

Omar, better known as Omar the Strawberry, is an old-fashioned bandit. Forced to flee to Algeria, he makes a living out of petty crime, accompanied by his famous sidekick Roger. After decades of ruling the French criminal underworld, they must come to terms with their new life together, which until now has been one of debauchery and violence.

The Charcoal Maker

Film describes the miserable existence of a charcoal-burner who is barely able to feed his family. His search for work in town ends in failure and he is forced to return to his village.

The Unexpected Party

This musical comedy produced in 1953 for the General Government of Algeria, features the comic trio composed of Rouiched, Mohamed Touri and Sid Ali Fernandel, accompanied by the orchestra of the master of the Algiers Chaâbi El Hadj M'hamed El Anka, the singer Fadhéla Dziria, Mustapha Skandrani on the piano. Some scenes were filmed at the Summer Palace (the current Palace of the Algerian Presidency, called the People's Palace). André Zwobada, the director, will play an important role after the independence of Algeria in 1962, in the production and preservation of the first Algerian newsreels.

Ramparts of Clay

In a village on the edge of the Sahara, Rima, a 19-year-old orphan, dreams of learning, of discovering, of living free while the men of the salt mine go on strike. The authorities react by sending the army, Rima decides to help the strikers by trapping the soldiers. Co-produced with the Office des Actualités Algériens and shot in the region of Téhouda, 50 kilometers from Biskra, this Franco-Algerian film is fully part of the cinematographic heritage of both shores of the Mediterranean. Bertuccelli adopts the technique of cinema verite, with non-professional actors from the village itself, giving the film a striking documentary texture and a rare force of authenticity. Carried by the moving interpretation of Leila Shenna in the role of Rima, the actor Krikèche and lulled by the music of Taos Amrouche, the film questions female emancipation, social resistance and the relationship with the territory.

Nejma

Directed by Kamal Dehane

Jamila, the Algerian

Djamila, a young Algerian woman living with her brother Hadi and her uncle Mustafa in the Casbah district of Algiers under the French occupation of Algeria, sees the full extent of injustice, tyranny and cruelty on his compatriots by French soldiers. Jamila's nationalist spirit will be strengthened when French forces invade her university to arrest her classmate Amina who commits suicide by ingesting poison. Shortly after the prominent Algerian guerrilla leader Youssef takes refuge with her, she realizes that her uncle Mustafa is part of this network of anti-colonial rebel fighters. Her uncle linked her to the National Liberation Front (FLN). A series of events illustrate Jamila's participation in resistance operations against the occupier before she was finally captured and tortured. Finally, despite the efforts of her French lawyer, Jamila is sentenced to death...

Dark Night, October 17, 1961

Parisian authorities clash with the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in director Alain Tasma’s recounting of one of the darkest moments of the Algerian War of Independence. As the war wound to a close and violence persisted in the streets of Paris, the FLN and its supporters adopted the tactic of murdering French policemen in hopes of forcing a withdrawal. When French law enforcement retaliated by brutalizing Algerians and imposing a strict curfew, the FLN organizes a peaceful demonstration that drew over 11,000 supporters, resulting in an order from the Paris police chief to take brutal countermeasures. Told through the eyes of both French policemen as well as Algerian protestors, Tasma’s film attempts to get to the root of the tragedy by presenting both sides of the story.

The Stranger

Meursault is a man who feels utterly isolated from everyone and everything around him. This alienation results in sudden, inexplicable bursts of violence, culminating in murder.

The Refusal

In 1971, the Algerian government nationalized hydrocarbons. The consequences of this decision on the community of Algerians in France are numerous. The Galti family is prey to these economic problems. The father, Khaled, former member of the F.L.N. in France, does not escape the sentence. Sharazade, his wife and comrade in combat, finds herself torn between her role as wife, mother and nostalgia for a country and a bygone past. As for his son Karim, a victim of socio-cultural division, all he has left is refusal.

Fanon

Frantz Fanon, a French psychiatrist from Martinique, has just been appointed head of department at the psychiatric hospital in Blida, Algeria. His methods contrast with those of the other doctors in a context of colonization. A biopic in the heart of the Algerian war where a fight is waged in the name of Humanity.

Mimezrane

A legend that begins with the magic words: "Once upon a time." Once upon a time, there was a little girl nicknamed Mimezrane for her beauty and especially for her beautiful braids. She was beautiful but had strangely sad eyes. She was orphaned at a very young age. Her boyfriend and confidant was Hennouche, a mischievous little boy with big black eyes. They lived together a carefree childhood. Time passed. They grew up. Hennouche became a goat herder with a melodious voice; Mimezrane, for her part, became a washerwoman and, on occasion, a water carrier. Both accepted their fate without ever complaining. Yet, even in her poverty, Mimezrane was the most beautiful of all.

Pépé le Moko

Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.

The Desert Ark

The Desert Ark (L'Arche du Desert), a variation on Romeo and Juliet set in the Algerian desert. A young couple must face inevitable conflict when their rival families discover their secret love. Taking refuge in a cave, they listen to the sounds of a senseless campaign of violence and murder, which is the culmination of the extremism that has long divided their two communities. Nominated for the Golden Leopard at the 1997 Locarno Film Festival.

The Law of My Country

Algeria. Benjamin, Kateb and Antoine are three teenagers from three religious backgrounds who never should have met. But they share the same passion for football and the same disregard for the disapproving looks which their unusual friendship draws.

Meet the Leroys

A man takes his wife and their teenage children on a road trip down memory lane while facing divorce.

Bye Bye Morons

When 43-year-old hairdresser Suze Trappet finds out that she's seriously ill, she decides to go looking for a child she was forced to abandon when she was only 15. On her madcap bureaucratic quest she crosses paths with JB, a 50-year-old man in the middle of a burnout, and Mr. Blin, a blind archivist prone to overenthusiasm. The unlikely trio set off on a hilarious and poignant helterskelter journey across the city in search of Suze's long-lost child.

On Tour

After leaving France in search of a better life in America, a television producer returns with a group of burlesque dancers to take the Paris club scene by storm.

The Sweet Escape

Michel, a fifty year old man, graphic designer, decides to change the urban lifestyle and go on an adventure. Fascinated by airmail, he dreams at Jean Mermoz when he's on scooter. One day, Michel sees a picture of a kayak.

It Must Be Heaven

Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.

Case 137

Stéphanie, a police officer working for Internal Affairs, is assigned to a case involving a young man severely wounded during a tense and chaotic demonstration in Paris. While she finds no evidence of illegitimate police violence, the case takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown.

SubUrbia

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.

Mr. Morgan's Last Love

A widowed professor living in Paris develops a special relationship with a younger French woman.

My Own Love Song

A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.

Skies of Lebanon

In the fifties, young Alice leaves her natal Swiss mountains for the sunny and vibrant shores of Beirut. She falls madly in love with Joseph, a quirky astrophysicist intent on sending the first Lebanese national into space. Alice quickly fits in among his relatives, but after years of bliss, the civil war threatens their Garden of Eden.

Ménage

A bisexual petty criminal named Bob encounters a married couple arguing in a bar. Bob breaks up the fight and proceeds to seduce first the wife and then the husband. Then Bob teaches the couple how to be burglars and they join him in his criminal exploits.

School of Life

Paris 1930. Paul has only ever had one and the same horizon: the high walls of the orphanage, an austere building in the Parisian working class suburbs. Entrusted to a joyful country woman, Célestine, and her husband, Borel, the rather stiff gamekeeper of a vast estate in Sologne, the city child, recalcitrant and stubborn, arrives in a mysterious and disturbing world, that of a sovereign and wild region. The huge forest, misty ponds, heaths, and fields all belong to the Count de la Fresnaye, an elderly taciturn man who lives alone in his manor.

Uranus

After World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists. The local bar owner, a simple man who likes to write poetry, who only wants to be left alone to do his job, becomes a target for Communist harassment as they try and locate a particular loyalist, and he pushes back.

Afterlife of the Party

A social butterfly who dies during her birthday week is given a second chance to right her wrongs on Earth.

Mothers' Instinct

When a sudden tragedy uproots the lives of two women and their families, they begin to question the relationships they once held so dear.

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

When a celebrated TV show host returns to his hometown in the South, his family is there to remind him that going home is no vacation!

Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle

Two young girls meet, Reinette from the countryside and Mirabelle from Paris, and decide to take a flat together in Paris where they attend University. Four successive stories about their daily lives illustrate the very different views, characters and relation to the world of these two friends.

Macadam Stories

Improbable encounters bring tenderness, laughter and compassion to a world of urban alienation.

Remember

With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.

Perfumes

Anne Walberg is a celebrity in the world of perfume. She creates fragrances and sells her incredible talent to companies of all kinds. She lives as a diva, selfish, with a strong temper. Guillaume is her new driver and the only one who is not afraid to stand up to her. No doubt this is the reason why she does not fire him.