Algeria and France / 2009 / 97mins / Drama / French

In 1962, a young woman has lost everything during the war for independence in Algeria. A Frenchman who is leaving the country offers her and her six children his former home. An unscrupulous government official is trying to take the home away from her. Based on a true story.

Abdelkrim Bahloul

Abdelkrim Bahloul, born in 1950 in Saïda, Algeria, studied at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Algiers, and later at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris. In 1973, he obtained an MA in Modern Literature at the University of Paris. He then went on to study film at IDHEC. Before becoming director, he became a camera operator at TF1 and Antenne 2 from 1976 to 1980, then assistant director at TF1 from 1980 to 1983. His first feature film Le Thé à la menthe, presented in 1984 at the Cannes Film Festival, described with humor and tenderness the tricks and lies of a young immigrant who believes that his mother remained in Algeria, but is actually living in Paris. Bahloul then made more feature films and he developed this reflection on the situation of the emigrant, his relationship with his country and its history as with the host city and its inhabitants: Un vampire au paradis (1991), Grand Prize at the Film Festival of Humor in Chamrousse, Grand Prize at the International Festival for Children and Youth in Paris; Les Sœurs Hamlet (1996), Grand Prize at the Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Valencia (Spain), Grand Prize at the festival Vues d’Afrique in Montreal (1997); La Nuit du destin (1997), Best Director award at the Pan-African Film Festival in Johannesburg (1998). Le Soleil assassiné (2004), starring Charles Berling, is about the tragedy of Algeria, and has been presented in international festivals (Audience Award at the World Festival - Montreal, in September 2003). Learn More