الولف صعيب - El Ouelf Essaïb

Chronicles of my Village

July 2016 •Arabic

In 1960, nine-year-old Bachir dreamed of becoming the son of a martyr because he had heard that the children of martyrs would obtain everything after independence. He sets up a whole plan to get rid of a certain François, enemy of his country, while his father, Saddek, abandoned him with his mother and brothers. Through this fiction, the film looks at the life and visions of little Algerians during the War of National Liberation. Karim Traïdia looks back on his own childhood during the Algerian war (1945-1962). On a humorous note, it tells the adventures of a young child and his innocent friends against the backdrop of a raging merciless war.

Where Fig Trees Grow

November 2005 •French

An ensemble piece set in a North African neighbourhood in Toulon.

Carnaval fi Dachra

January 1994 •Arabic

Makhlouf Bombardier, unusual, decides to be elected mayor of a dechra (village). So he surrounds himself with trusted partners to organize a great campaign for his election. Bombardier became the mayor of the village and is organizing an international film festival to compete at the Carthage festival. In his action, he is pursued by the Court of Auditors for embezzlement. So, his ultimate goal is to become the president.

عائلة كي الناس

January 1990 •Arabic

Le Clandestin

January 1989 •Arabic

Nine people with Abdullah Le Clandestin (Illegal Taxi), in one car, on the way to Algiers.

Bab El Oued City

November 1994 •Arabic

Bab El-Oued, a popular district of Algiers, in 1989, a few months after the riots. Boualem works at night in a bakery and steals the loudspeaker that was installed on his roof and was broadcasting the Imam's word... therefore preventing him from sleeping. This blunder is taken as a pretext by the Islamists to put the district under their control...

Gourbi Palace

March 2006 •Arabic

A poor man rescues a rich man from burglars. as a way for thanking him The rich guy invite him and his family to come and live in his luxurious hotel. The poor family's life turns upside down in their new home.

Elli Fat Mat

November 1989 •French

27 years after 1962, Antoine returns to Algiers...

Étoile aux dents ou Poulou le magnifique

January 1971 •French

In the 70s, in the Goutte d'or district, three friends of Algerian origin: Poulou, a failed boxer, Amar, the clumsiest of thieves, and Jibé, a public writer for illiterate compatriots whose lives he knows in detail. As he betrays none of their secrets, he enjoys great prestige in the bistros where he works. The three of them lead a casual life, raising money by illicit means. It's only when Poulou and Amar leave that Jibé understands his isolation and marginalization. The images as well as the sounds help to reinforce the feeling that Paris is a city where he is both at home and a terrible stranger.

The Empire of Dreams

June 1982 •Arabic

A stubborn director who wants to rediscover the Algiers of his childhood comes up against the “Hollywood” fantasies of his characters, non-professionals all hoping to be able to become “someone else”, at least for the duration of a film… Mise en abyme for a journey into megalomania…

One Roof, One Family

February 1982 •Arabic

Selim Mechoubine, a young man of 28, is the eldest of a large family. In the cramped accommodation he shares with his parents, brothers and sisters... he occupies the kitchen, the refuge of his dreams and his many fantasies. Selim, the court clerk where divorcing couples parade..., wants to get married. His mother finds him “the rare pearl”. But now, the bride's family demands that the couple have their own home... Selim's misadventure begins; he finds himself confronted with the problems of the housing crisis which forces him to begin a long quest, procedures, requests to find the sine qua non condition for his marriage.

Mascarades

November 2008 •French

Mounir Mekbek lives with his family in a small village in the heart of the Algerian countryside. Very proud and sure of himself, he has only one dream- to finally be appreciated by his fellow villagers. Screwing up his carefully maintained image is his headstrong, narcoleptic sister Rym who falls asleep anywhere and whom the village is convinced will end up a spinster. One evening, Mounir returns from town drunk and announces that he's found a suitor for his sister. The fake story snowballs and snowballs until the suitor morphs into a rich, blonde Australian. The village begins preparing for the wedding in earnest - but without a bridegroom in sight.

Hassan Taxi

May 1982 •Arabic

Les Chats

May 1979 •Arabic

The Harem of Madame Osmane

July 2000 •French

In Algiers in 1993, while the civil war is starting, Mrs Osmane's tenants have to endure her bad temper. Her husband left her and the fear to lose her respectability haunt her. The former member of the Resistance during the Independence War persists in controlling the slightest moves of the households rather than struggle against her own frustrations. Learning her daughter is in love, the possibility of finding herself alone will push her to the limit: The symbolical Mrs Osmane "harem" is about to collapse.

Machaho

January 1995 •Arabic

In Kabylie, rude mountain region in the north of Algeria. Arezki finds the young Larbi exhausted, buried under the snow. He takes him in and nurses him until he's recovered. The host seduces Arezki's daughter. She is pregnant. This is an unsupportable shame to the father of the female sinner. Arezki claims vengeance. He leaves his house and takes the oath not to come back before having killed Larbi who betrayed him under his own roof.

L'inspecteur Tahar marque le but

January 1975 •Arabic

Les Vacances de l'apprenti

January 1999 •Arabic

Les Moineaux d'Algérie

January 1979 •Arabic

Once Upon a Time in the Oued

October 2005 •French

In 1988, Johnny Leclerc, the son of a Norman mother and an Alsatian father, lives in a suburban housing estate with his friends. He behaves like a Muslim, observes Ramadan and wears a djelaba. He's even convinced that his name is Abdelbachir and that he was born in a small village in the bled. When his friend Yacine gets into trouble with a local kaid and decides to return to Algeria for the vacations, he smuggles himself into the Sabri family's luggage to fulfill his dream and finally get to know his "roots". As soon as he arrived on the Algerian coast, Johnny felt right at home. But Yacine is opposed to his father, who wants to arrange his marriage.