Assia Djebar, entre ombre et soleil

Based on the real life story of Sagawa, a Japanese student who killed, dismembered and ate a young Dutch girl in Paris.

Mahfoud is a young teacher at a technical school in Algiers. Using his technical and computer skills, he refurbishes an old weaving loom that he intends to present at an international inventors’ conference in Germany. However, his travel plans are thwarted by administrative obstacles. Meanwhile, his neighbors keep a close eye on him, especially the elderly M’nouar, marked by the terrible memories of the Algerian War. He sees everything and everyone with suspicion. As far as he is concerned, Mahfoud has no good intentions—he may even be involved in subversive activities. Naturally, it does not help that Mahfoud is in a relationship with Samia, a young psychiatrist who has returned to the country after studying in Belgium. She challenges local norms and breaks taboos that unsettle those around her. In the end, Mahfoud manages to obtain a visa to attend the international fair. His invention wins a prize, and when he returns home, he receives a very different kind of welcome.

Directed by Kamal Dehane

Born in Constantine in 1929, and having lived for many years in France and elsewhere in Europe, Kateb Yacine was one of the most celebrated and pioneering writers of the Maghreb—a poet, novelist, and playwright. In this film, Kateb Yacine reflects on his work, his ideas, and his life. Through his memories, an extraordinary journey unfolds. The images he arranges like a deck of cards provide the keys to understanding his singular path. He quietly enters our imagination, awakening in us the desire to join him in his unfulfilled quest: the search for memory.

Otomar Krejča, the son of a peasant, retained from his childhood in the countryside a deep sense of his roots and the cycle of the seasons. From an early age, his vocation as an actor drew him to the capital. He became an actor, stage director, and head of drama at the National Theatre in Prague, the foremost stage in Bohemia.

The discovery of one of the world’s last remaining communist countries, North Korea, seen through the eyes of a young woman from Antwerp of Korean origin. Adopted as a Belgian citizen, she decides to return to her native country, whose language she does not even speak. A stereotypical vision of everyday life in North Korea? The filmmaker instead sought to meet the men and women who live there. Wherever nature unfolds and human life persists, there are always sounds that break the silence—even in the “Land of the Morning Calm.” Thanks to Mi Kyong, the interpreter whose role gradually shifts to become the central figure of the film, we are introduced to the daily life of this remote country, which has been living for more than 50 years through a unique communist experience.

Directed by Kamal Dehane.