Produced by Thala Films (Algeria) and In Vivo Films (France), Amin Sidi-Boumediene’s first feature will be premiered during the Cannes Film Festival’s Critic’s Week. The Algerian director, scriptwriter, editor and musician has already been noticed for his short films, which include The Island (Al Djazira), winning awards at many festivals, and Tomorrow, Algiers.
With Abu Leila, he has made “the first Franco-Algerian co-production with mostly Algerian finance” according to Claire Charles-Gervais, co-director of the French production company In Vivo Films, based in La Rochelle. “We met the director and his producers Fayçal Hammoum and Yacine Bouaziz four years ago in Locarno, as part of Open Doors,” she continued, “then in 2016 the project was selected at the Cannes Festival’s Cinéfondation Workshop. On the French side, Abou Leila has received support from CNC’s Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, the Nouvelle Aquitaine region and from the Charente-Maritime département. The six weeks’ filming took place in November and December in Algiers and southern Algeria, ending with two days in the studio at La Rochelle in January.”
Amin Sidi-Boumediene is the film’s script-writer, director and editor. Set in the Algeria of the 1990’s, the film is about two childhood friends, Lotfi and S. They cross the desert looking for a dangerous, much sought-after terrorist, Abu Leila. However, as they go deeper into the desert, it is their own violence they have to confront.
When asked about his selection for the Critics’ Week, the director said: “Through this first film I wanted to talk about the terrorism in Algeria during the 1990’s. Instead of making a social and political story, I decided not to use any references to a particular time, that way I could express myself more freely from a philosophical and human point of view, making the film much more universal. To avoid clichés I don’t use anything linked to specific dates. The story goes to the roots of violence and terrorism, avoiding a frontal approach.”
Sources: https://cineuropa.org/fr/, https://www.semainedelacritique.com/fr/
