Mouni Bouallam

Hocine Filali is a forty-something year old taxi driver in the port city of Algiers. His day-to-day routine has him snaking through thick morning traffic, bustling boulevards, and the occasional military checkpoint. In the distance, the sound of the call to prayer mixes with the crash of ocean waves as they bring word of what life might be like elsewhere, across the ocean, in Italy.

Zine and Rayanne plan to flee to a dreamland, a fantasy haven on the north shore of the Mediterranean. The crossing is commonly made in fishing boats and other small craft; hundreds of harragas die each year. Zine embarks for Spain with a group of others, while Rayyane decides to stay back to raise more money for the crossing - which involves tricking his uncle into lending him money under the pretense of running a local business. But, like so many other working poor around the world, Rayanne refuses to weigh the danger against the prospect of a better world.

In 1960, nine-year-old Bachir dreamed of becoming the son of a martyr because he had heard that the children of martyrs would obtain everything after independence. He sets up a whole plan to get rid of a certain François, enemy of his country, while his father, Saddek, abandoned him with his mother and brothers. Through this fiction, the film looks at the life and visions of little Algerians during the War of National Liberation. Karim Traïdia looks back on his own childhood during the Algerian war (1945-1962). On a humorous note, it tells the adventures of a young child and his innocent friends against the backdrop of a raging merciless war.

Women and children from a village in southern Algeria find themselves besieged by soldiers and can not get out the risk of dying. Gradually, these villagers are faced with thirst. At the point where soon arises for them the dilemma of choosing their death.

A short film by Oussama Kobbi.