Z

Z 1969

7.83

Amid a tense political climate, the opposition leader is killed in an apparent accident. When a prosecutor smells a cover-up, witnesses get targeted. A thinly veiled dramatization of the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis and its aftermath, “Z” captures the outrage at the US-backed junta that ruled Greece at the time of its release.

1969

Le Bal

Le Bal 1983

7.04

The 50 year story of a ballroom in France, from the 1920s. The people who go there is always the same, even the musicians. You can see all kind of people dancing all the fashion dances (depending on the age).

1983

Return Of The Prodigal Son

Return Of The Prodigal Son 1976

6.12

Freed after spending years in prison, an activist's homecoming turns into a dark affair as his disillusion clashes with his family's expectations. Demonstrating Chahine’s eclecticism, this is an elegant melodrama, exuberant musical, layered allegory, and profound portrait of personal and political disillusionment.

1976

Elise, or Real Life

Elise, or Real Life 1970

6.00

In the middle of the Algerian war, Elise, from Bordeaux, “goes” to Paris to join her brother to earn her living in an automobile factory. There she meets Arezki, an Algerian nationalist activist with whom she falls in love. A chronicle of working life at the time and which highlights the extent of police repression against Algerians.

1970

The Epic of Cheikh Bouamama

The Epic of Cheikh Bouamama 1985

10.00

The story of the film revolves around the epic of Sheikh Bouamama, a leader of the national resistance in Algeria during the French colonial era. The events are taking place in southwestern Algeria. The film also tells about different stages of the resistance, especially about one of the uprisings of the Algerian people, namely "the battle of the sons of Sidi Sheikh Bouamama", in which French General Leuti was appointed to try to suppress and end this resistance.

1985

Hell is Ten Years Old

Hell is Ten Years Old 1968

10.00

This film was considered a testing ground for young O.N.C.I.C. directors. Today there is no longer a copy and the negative was accidentally destroyed. The Algerian Cinematheque has a copy of the very beautiful part shot by Abderrahmane Bouguermouh "La Give": A young schoolgirl from Kabylia is tasked by the resistance fighters with transmitting a message which is hidden in a thrush...

1968

Opium and the Stick

Opium and the Stick 1970

7.50

In 1950, in Algeria, in a village in Kabylia, Algerian resistance fighters resisted the French occupation army. Bachir returns to the village to escape the clashes ravaging Algiers. In Thala, he has two brothers, Ali and Belaïd. The first is engaged with the ALN (The National Liberation Army) and fights against the colonizer. His second brother, Belaïd, the eldest, is convinced of a French Algeria. His family torn apart, Bachir decides to join the war and takes sides against the repression of the French army. The French army is trying in vain to turn the population against the insurgents by using disinformation. The more time passes, the more the inhabitants of the village and surrounding areas, oppressed, rally to the cause of the FLN, their houses and their fields will be burned... Adaptation to the cinema of the eponymous novel Opium and the Stick, published in 1965, by Mouloud Mammeri, the film was dubbed into Tamazight (Berber), a first for Algerian cinema.

1970

The Panafrican Festival in Algiers

The Panafrican Festival in Algiers 1969

6.00

Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.

1969

December

December 1973

10.00

In Algiers, during the Algerian War of Independence, one of the leaders of the FLN was arrested by the French colonial army, which used the most violent methods to make the prisoners speak. The use of torture poses a conscience problem for a French officer. Playing shot-reverse-shot, between the tortured and his torturer, in a suffocating camera, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina approaches torture by drawing inspiration from the story of his father, who died of abuse.

1973

The Golden Ass

The Golden Ass 1970

1

In ancient Mauretania, the young Roman Lucius Apuleius and his friend Aristomene run into a series of misadventures.

1970

Inspector Tahar's Holiday

Inspector Tahar's Holiday 1972

8.80

Inspector Tahar and his apprentice are invited by Mama Traki, a popular Tunisian heroine, to spend their vacation in Tunis. Before leaving Algiers, they stop at a tourist complex where a murder has just been committed. The investigation full of surprises and twists and turns will take them to Tunis where they will find Ommi Traki and his family...

1972

Ali in Wonderland

Ali in Wonderland 1980

10.00

Ali, an Algerian crane operator, takes with philosophy the bullying suffered by immigrants like him. His existence changes radically the day he wins the lottery.

1980

The Empire of Dreams

The Empire of Dreams 1982

10.00

A stubborn director who wants to rediscover the Algiers of his childhood comes up against the “Hollywood” fantasies of his characters, non-professionals all hoping to be able to become “someone else”, at least for the duration of a film… Mise en abyme for a journey into megalomania…

1982

Forbidden Zone

Forbidden Zone 1974

10.00

A revolutionary militant is killed during the repression of May 1945. His son, who is unaware of the real circumstances of the murder, ends up being attached to the ideal for which his father died.

1974

The Way

The Way 1967

10.00

The Algerian War is seen through the eyes of a group of Algerian freedom-fighters who have been captured and incarcerated in French-run military prisons both in France and Algeria. In addition to attempts at escape, this prison drama also includes propaganda and brainwashing attempts by the French and scenes of torture. In what is possibly the most horrible torture of all, the inmates are forced to listen to broadcast speeches by General Charles de Gaulle -- speeches which illustrate the changing relations between the French and the Algerians.

1967

First Step

First Step 1980

10.00

A modern couple seeks to find marital happiness in a context where Algerian society is taking the “first step” towards female emancipation. A woman becomes president of a popular municipal assembly. Will she find happiness ?

1980