Papicha
Mounia Meddour
Algeria in the 1990s. For years, a bloody civil war between the military and the radical Islamists, attacks and many victims are omnipresent in the news. The eighteen-year old Nedjma and her friends do not want to have their every day life ruined by the rising tensions. They ditch their hijab disguises for checkpoints for cocktail dresses and parties and dance through the nights. The camera skilfully and intimately captures the tensions and threat levels that follow the uprising against the tightening noose of society. Soon, the brutalization cannot be ignored and even banal events such as a private fashionshow become a dangerous political statement.
How controversial and timely Papicha is can, for example, be seen in how the film, celebrated in Cannes and shortlisted for the Best International Film award at the Oscars, was not allowed a release in its home of Algeria.
26 April 2020
16:00 h,
More information
Direction | Mounia Meddour |
Year | F/ALG/B/KAT 2019 |
Duration | 105 min |
Language | OmeU |
Production | Patrick André, Xavier Gens, Gregoire Gensollen, Belkacem Hadjadj, Monia Meddour; production company: The Ink Connection, High Sea Production, Tayda Film; distributor: Jour2Fête |
Cast | Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda, Zahra Doumandji u.a. |
Camera | Léo Lefèvre |
Script | Mounia Meddour, Fadette Drouard |
Editing | Damien Keyeux |
Music | Rob |

