Screenings & Film talks: Bab el-Oued City (Merzak Allouache, 1994)

 Was anderes machen (The Home and the Movie)

In 1993, when Merzak Allouache was making a film, Algeria was at the onset of a bleak decade during which the state secret service and fundamentalist Islamic groups were engaged in a bitter war at the expense of the civilian population. Nonetheless, through the story of Boualem the baker, who rips out the muezzin’s loudspeaker and dumps it into the sea because he can’t sleep, Alloauche takes a close look at the neighbourhood where he was born. Full of sympathy and humour, this look at Algeria’s postcolonial present day characterises the filmmaker’s style. His work reflects this present day on the screens of Cannes and Venice and becomes an important voice of world cinema, putting into perspective typical media representation of young men from North Africa: Be it the nameless refugees on rubber dinghies to whom he dedicated Harragas or the jihadists he talks about in Le Repenti and Vent Divine. In conversation with the filmmaker as chronicler, his work as an archive of contemporary history.

Bab el-Oued City | Merzak Allouache | 91 min | 1994 | OV with German subtitles

Film screening
Unfortunately, the announced discussion had to be cancelled.


Wednesday, November 22
7 pm
TV Studio Betonhalle
Registration here