Screen/Society--African Film Festival--"Bab El-Oued City"

Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 2:00pm to 3:45pm
Screen/Society--African Film Festival--"Bab El-Oued City"

Film Screening:

Bab El-Oued City

(Merzak Allouache, 1994, 93 min, Algeria, in Arabic w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD) 

-- Discussion to follow

Bab el-Oued is working class district of Algiers, shortly after the bloody riots of October 1988. Boualem is a young worker in the district bakery. He works hard at night and sleeps during the day. One morning, he commits a "foolish" act which puts the entire district in turmoil. A group of young extremists headed by Said, sets out in the search of the culprit of this "provocative" act with the intention of making an example by punishing him. Violence settles in and quickly develops when Yamina, Said's younger sister, is caught while meeting Boualem, with whom she is secretly in love.

-- Winner of FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes Film Festival (1994) and IMA Grand Prize at Paris Biennal of Arab Cinema (1994)!

"Merzak Allouache's feature contains one of the clearest and most persuasive depictions of the recent rise of Islamic fundamentalism."-- Chicago Reader

Cost: Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Sponsors: The Africa Initiative, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), the Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Department of Cultural Anthropology, and the Department of African and African American Studies.

White 107 (White Lecture Hall)