Story
A surreal mirror of present-day Algeria: during the civil war, two policeman undertake a nightmarish trip through the desert. In 1994, S. and Lotfi, two policemen and friends since childhood, drive through the Sahara. They’re looking for Abou Leila, a dangerous terrorist, who is on the run. The whole trip seems pointless, as the desert hasn’t been affected by the wave of violence that is gripping the rest of the country. For Lotfi there is only one aim: keeping S. as far as possible from the capital, because he knows that his friend can’t take any more bloodshed. Yet, the deeper they venture into the void, the more they are confronted with their own violent civil war history.
Director
AMIN SIDI-BOUMÉDIÈNE (*1982) studied film at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français in Paris and his shorts Tomorrow, Algiers? (2010) and The Island (2012) won several prizes. Abou Leila is his his debut full-length film.Trailer
Info
Abou Leila
Fiction Feature
Arabic, Tamasheq
Kaleidoskop//FF2019
Algeria, France, Qatar
2019
139 min
OV with English subtitles
Amin Sidi-Boumédiène
Amin Sidi-Boumédiène
Slimane Benouari, Lyes Salem, Azouz Abdelkader, Fouad Megiraga, Meryem Medjkane, Hocine Mokhtar, Samir El Hakim
Claire Charles-Gervais, Louise Bellicaud, Fayçal Hammoum, Yacine Bouaziz
Kanamé Onoyama
Amin Sidi-Boumédiène
Hamid Boughrara, Laurent Le Corre
Films Boutique
In Vivo Films; Thala Films
Isabel Ivars, Films Boutique: isabel@filmsboutique.com