Documentaries

WA LAOU FIL SIN

CHINA IS STILL FAR AWAY
Malek Bensmaïl
Algerien, FRA 2008
120 min
V'09

Tucked away in the Aurès Mountains in the Algerian heartlands lies the small village of Ghassira. Here, in 1954, two teachers became the first civilian victims of the War of Independence. Henceforth this place would be known as the \"Cradle of the Algerian Revolution\". Some fifty years later Malek Bensmaïl spent a year in Ghassira observing its inhabitants. He set up his camera in the local school and recorded its pupils learning about their past, interrogating their present and facing up to an uncertain future. As the seasons pass, the director uncovers, little by little, a complex picture of Algerian society. Fundamental questions of identity, culture and language are raised, and the village's children become emblematic of the state of a nation. What has the country achieved in fifty years of independence? What has changed and what will the coming years bring? From a village seeped in history Bensmaïl offers us an authentic, vibrant impression of contemporary Algeria - precisely filmed and deeply insightful.

Credits
  • Malek Bensmaïl
  • Malek Bensmaïl
  • Lionel Jan Kerguistel
  • Dana Farzanehpour
  • Matthieu Bretaud
  • Camel Zekri
Unlimited, Cirta Films INA, 3B Productions, ENTV

Doc & Film International 13, rue Portefoin 75003 Paris, Frankreich T +33 1 42 77 56 87 doc@docandfilm.com

Video (Digi Beta)
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