Their Algeria
Fall Grants 2019
Lina Soualem / Feature Documentary / France, Algeria, Switzerland, Qatar / 2020 / 70 min / Original Language: Arabic, French / Interests: Creative Documentary
Synopsis
After 62 years of living together, Aïcha and Mabrouk, my grandparents, are separating. They now live in two separate buildings, facing each other. I didn’t understand their separation. No one explained it to me. I don’t know their story. No one told it to me. Their silence troubled me. Aïcha and Mabrouk got married in 1952, in the village of Laouamer in Algeria, without knowing each other. Two years later, they settled in Thiers, a medieval French town where they have been living for over 60 years. Mabrouk worked his entire life as a polisher in a knife-making factory. Aïcha followed a husband she did not know and started a family with him. As I try to understand their separation, it leads me back to Algeria and to the silence that exile has imposed on two generations, my father’s and mine. I discover the persistent suffering of their uprooting. An uprooting they can’t describe. With them, and with the help of my father Zinedine, I’m off to search for this story of exile, of bonds that are unmade, of suffering and pride—which profoundly affected my grandparents and an entire generation of Algerians who immigrated to France.
Credits
- Director
- Lina Soualem
- Screenwriter
- Lina Soualem
- Producer
- Marie Balducchi
- Production Company
- AGAT Films / EX NIHILO
About the Director
Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress born and based in Paris. After studying History and Political Science at La Sorbonne University, Lina worked as a programmer for film festivals. Lina’s debut feature documentary 'Their Algeria' (Visions du Réel 2020), received several awards at international film festivals. Lina acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Rayhana. She is currently developing her second feature documentary 'Bye Bye Tiberias', and works as an author of fictions, documentaries and TV series.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
"Visions du Reel 2020 (WP – online edition)
Cinemed 2020
El Gouna FF 2020"
Contacts
-
Main Contact
Marie Balducchi
- Company:
- AGAT Films & Cie
- Email:
- marie.balducchi@agatfilms.com
-
Main Contact
Lina Soualem
- Company:
- -
- Phone:
- 622560939
- Email:
- linasoualem@gmail.com