Samir Elhakim

A Tale of Love and Desire

Hakim

Ahmed, 18, is French of Algerian origin. He grew up in the Parisian suburbs. On the benches of the university, he meets Farah, a young Tunisian full of energy recently arrived from Tunis. While discovering a body of sensual and erotic Arabic literature that he never knew existed, Ahmed falls deeply in love with this girl, and although literally overwhelmed by desire, he will try to resist it.

Ayoub

No description available

Papicha

Mokhtar

Nedjma, an 18-year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War keep her from experiencing a normal life. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to put on a fashion show.

143 Sahara Street

Self

Alone in a small white house on the edge of national road 1, the Trans-Saharan road, which connects Algiers to Tamanrasset crossing the immensity of the desert, Malika, 74, one day opened her door to the director Hassen Ferhani, who came there to scout with his friend Chawki Amari, journalist at El Watan and author of the story Nationale 1 which relates his journey on this north-south axis of more than 2000 km. The Malika of Amari's novel, which Ferhani admits to having first perceived as a "literary fantasy", suddenly takes on an unsuspected human depth in this environment naturally hostile to man. She lends herself to the film project as she welcomes her clients, with an economy of gestures and words, an impression reinforced by the mystery that surrounds her and the rare elements of her biography which suggest that she is not from the region, that she left the fertile north of Algeria to settle in the desert where she lives with a dog and a cat.

Abou Leila

Chief Constable

Algeria, 1994. S. and Lotfi, two friends from childhood, travel through the desert looking for Abou Leila, a dangerous terrorist on the run. Their quest seems absurd, given that the Sahara has not been affected by the wave of attacks. Lofti has only one priority : to keep S. as far from the capital as possible, knowing his friend is too fragile to face more bloodshed. But the closest they get into the desert, the more they will be confronted with their own violence.

Until The Birds Return

Le frère de la femme

Algeria today. Past and present collide in the lives of a newly wealthy property developer, a young woman torn between the path of reason and sentiment and an ambitious neurologist impeded by wartime wrongdoings. Three stories that plunge us into the human soul of a contemporary Arab society.

Night Watchers

Twenty-year-old Nora takes her grandmother’s body to Algeria. Once there, her family discourage her from attending the funeral. Trapped between the four walls of the family home where she watches over her grandmother’s body, she is enraged. Silently.

Mollement, un samedi matin

One evening in Algiers, Myassa is raped by a man with a limp dick. Back home, she can't take a shower because the plumbing is broken. She has two priorities: file a complaint and find a plumber. She ends up face to face with her rapist.

Days of Ash

Mouhand

The story of Fatima, a young woman in her twenties who descends into delinquency and violence. Amir, a seducer and charmer, manages to manipulate Fatima and her two friends Ali and Mouhand.

Harragas

Mustapha

Set in the northern Algerian port city of Mostaganem. The title refers to the hordes of refugees, the 'Harragas', who smuggle themselves out of the country via any means possible. Here we meet one such group, Rachid, Nasser and Imene who pay a smuggler, Hassan, to take them to Spain in his rickety boat. Along with a group of African and Arab migrants, they are risking all they have to cross the stormy Straits.

The Life After

Mohamed

Set in Algeria, a widow whose husband was killed in a terrorist attack and her only son have to move from one village to another to escape false rumors and harassment. When they finally settle in a place and find work, their lives will take another drastic turn. Will it be for the worse or the better?

Serial K.

Self-produced minimalist short screened at the Béjaïa Cinematographic Days.