SPSpecial ProgrammesDirector: Yamina Benguigui
Algeria, France | Arabic, French
2001 | 98min.
Subtitles: English
Format: Digital Betacam Because it speaks directly from the heart, Inch’Allah Dimanche is impossible to forget. The first (and to date, only) feature-length film by French Algerian writer/director Yamina Benguigui, it showcases the dazzling actress Fejria Deliba as a spirited young woman who learns that personal freedom must be acquired through her own efforts. This is what makes it most relevant for today and makes it very much a woman’s film. It also opens a window on North African migration to France in the ’70s. On all these topics Benguigui has a lot to say, which she dramatizes in a modern retro style and a fast-moving story. The time is the mid-1970s, and the law has just changed to allow the families of “guest workers' to join their menfolk. But as the film shows with piercing clarity dosed with wry humor, this proves to be far from a boon for many wives. Young Zouina gets the audience on her side in a heart-rending opening scene in which she is forced to board a ship bound for France with her high-handed mother-in-law (embodied by the non-pro Rabia Mokkedem) and her three children, to join a husband she barely knows. Leading the cast of characters is the beautiful, courageous Zouina, played by Deliba as a victim of outmoded traditions who, despite physical and verbal abuse, won’t give up struggling to find meaning in her life. —Deborah Young

This film belongs to package Inch'Allah Dimanche + Short