The Return Of The Jerboas
Fall Grants 2019 - Development Stage
Amira Géhanne Khalfallah / Feature Narrative / Algeria, France, Qatar / 110 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Environmental, Social Issues, Children
Synopsis
Algeria, 2000. Hakim, a young doctor, arrives in the desert. He moves in with Ammar’s family who built the village dispensary. Soon Hakim discovers an oasis populated by blind and partially sighted people. Since his arrival and despite his consultations, the Oasiens are getting sick, and some are dying. Very quickly, he befriends Petite, the only child in the village with whom he conducts an investigation to understand what is happening. This leads him to discover that the village suffers from the effects of radioactivity following the explosion of the first French nuclear bomb in the Sahara, “Gerboise Bleue”, in 1960.
Credits
- Director
- Amira Géhanne Khalfallah
- Screenwriter
- Amira Géhanne Khalfallah
- Producer
- Jaber Debzi
- Production Company
- Prolégomènes
About the Director
Amira-Géhanne Khalfallah was born and raised in Algeria. She graduated in cellular and molecular biology, but moved more towards writing. Based in Morocco since 2007, she is also a journalist specializing in culture. After two short films, she wrote and developed her first feature narrative film 'The Return of the Jerboas' themed around the question of nuclear tests in the Sahara during the 1960s and their damages.