Gabbla

Living almost as a recluse, Malek, a topographer accepts a job in a region of western Algeria at the insistence of his friend Lakhdar. Malek arrives at the base camp previously used by a team, but decimated by fundamentalists. Malek discovers a young woman hiding in a corner of the Saharan hut. She’s an African woman and won’t give her name. Lakhdar arrives at the site, to find that both she and Malek have disappeared. At first, the two runaways head north, towards the Moroccan frontier which is the route to reach the Spanish enclave of Mellila. But the young woman doesn’t want to flee to Europe; she’s exhausted and wants to return home. with her finger, she traces the itinerary on Malek’s maps, an interminable diagonal towards the southeast – towards the desert, towards a point of mutual disappearance. “There’s no other desire in this film than to draw lines sketched onto the post-war landscape, now that Algeria emerges from a war fought by Islamism against the society. no other aim with Gabbla than to draw escape routes.” (Tariq Teguia)
With FERRAILLES D’ATTENTE