Farès Ladjimi

Africa in the sixties. The Nile perch, a ravenous predator, is introduced into Lake Victoria as a scientific experiment, causing the extinction of many native species. Its meat is exported everywhere in exchange for weapons, creating a globalized evil alliance on the lake shores. An infernal nightmare in the real world that wipes out Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

After the impressive Gulistan, Land of Roses (VdR 2016), the Kurdish filmmaker Zaynê Akyol returns with these conversations with imprisoned members of the Islamic State, alternating their words with aerial views of the countryside. An unexpected look at a far-reaching current political issue and a film whose subject matter and rhythm create an impressive cinematic object.

Yacine is in his 30s, of Algerian origins, and has come to Paris looking for inner peace. A playful and poetic quest leads him via all kinds of strange encounters to an increasingly surrealist world and to Andalusia: a state of mind.

Fatima is a little girl of eight years. By opening and closing the refrigerator, she wonders if the light stays on when the door closes...

A banker has died. He trafficked in nuclear material, so French intelligence assign two agents to find his list of contacts, which are on a flash drive: Muriel - the boss, acerbic, willing to sleep with any man, wondering if she should have a child - and Philippe, younger, boyish, meticulous, bothered by Muriel's frank sexual interest. They watch Constance, the banker's widow: a naïve, friendly, open, trusting. She's taking opera lessons, so the French spies join the class, which Muriel enjoys. It seems that other spies are after the same USB, and some of them sing as well. Singing, spying, and sex lead to duets of all kinds as well as to an eventual showdown.

Saint Charles County, Missouri, December 1863. Edmond, a prosperous French perfume merchant, decides to flee to a safer place when the storms of the American Civil War start knocking at his door, threatening the life and fortune of his family.

After a 1993 crash, amnesiac Ahmed returns home bandaged. His child fears him, and nightly visitors speak in strange tongues. His neighbor makes him uncomfortable, leaving him questioning everything.

In 2011 Tunisia, as the Arab Spring awakens, unemployed graduate Aziz, nicknamed Zizou, travels from his Saharan village to the big city of Tunis in search of a job. From television aerial installation to political intrigue, this fresh-faced young Candide will learn the ways of the world, fall in love with the ravishing Aicha, and become famous.