Fidaï

1516, Legend has it that the king of Algiers had a wife named Zaphira. When the pirate Aroudj Barbarossa arrives to liberate the city from the Spaniards, he is determined to conquer Zaphira as well as the kingdom itself. But is Zaphira willing to let him, or is she plotting for herself?

During a beach excursion, Nfissa, a young mother, is violently sexually harassed and drowned by a group of young men after she absent-mindedly swims into their midst. Nobody seems to witness her disappearance. Anxiety and fear grow among her family, especially as, on the same beach, bathers suddenly start dying en masse.

Leading Chinese Sixth Generation filmmaker Jia Zhangke returns home to Fenyang in Shanxi province after winning the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival for Still Life (2006). The experiences of his childhood, the people he grew up with, and the changing landscape of his home town gave Jia the inspiration to make his first films. The documentary forms a poignant inquiry into the past of the director's life and Chinese society at the same time.