The Vanishing

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.

In an estate in the South of Algiers, in the middle of the nineties. Djaber and Yamina are neighbours, but do not know each other. For one as for the other, it is so difficult to meet between girls and boys, that they almost stopped dreaming about it. In a few days nevertheless, what was up to then that deaf and distant violence explodes in front of them, modifying for ever their fates.

Director Karim Moussaoui wonders what would come close to be called Opera in his home country, Algeria. Together with his crew, he travels to the desert where he was told some women sung the Taguerabt (chant of the Gourara) in caves.

Atop 17 flights of stairs, Madame Aldjeria rules over a crew of beautiful young women with the help of faithful son Riyad and clever lawyer Djaffar. Madame Aldjeria can set up a lonely old man with companionship or destroy the reputation of whomever the client wants humiliated. But when Riyad grows attracted to a beautiful new girl, Paloma, and a potentially huge new project runs into trouble, Aldjeria could lose everything she's worked for.

From an Iranian village to the Palais Garnier, from a hospital in Villejuif in the South of Algeria, voices are raised ... Four filmmakers, Julie Deliquet, Karim Moussaoui, Sergei Loznitsa and Jafar Panahi film songs of women and evoke in their own way, the world in which each of them lives.

In the streets of Algiers, jacaranda trees bloom like shards of memory. Following in the footsteps of his father, Ameziane, a writer haunted by these purple trees, Hassen Ferhani explores the city, legacy and love. A rich and intimate quest in which writing, filming or choosing beauty become acts of resistance.

Addicted to mechanics, Amine is also addicted to roaring engines. In spite of severe past accidents, he takes to the road – for lack of a racetrack – and gives himself up to a curious camera that conveys with power and grace the unquenchable quest for strong sensations and images, thereby sketching the portrait of a promising and determined young filmmaker.