Mehdi Charef

  • Mehdi Charef – La Fille de Keltoum AKA Daughter of Keltoum (2001)

    2001-2010African CinemaDramaFranceMehdi Charef

    imdb wrote:
    An extraordinary story of a young woman raised in Switzerland who travels back to Algeria, her birthplace, to meet and kill her natural mother, who abandoned her shortly after birth. Along the way, she is exposed to the brutality of desert life and, in particular, the abuses that men heap upon women in fundamentalist, third world countries. Birth, death and life in general, have little meaning as people struggle for survival. The scenery is stark but at the same time beautiful and the faces of the characters that she meet are marvelous. The film was made in Tunisia, as it does not cast a particularly good light on Algerian men and probably could not have gotten permission to be filmed in Algeria where Sharia is the law of the land.Read More »

  • Mehdi Charef – Le Thé au harem d’Archimède AKA Tea in the Harem (1985)

    1981-1990DramaFranceMehdi Charef

    In a probing, autobiographical look at two impoverished teen buddies, director Mehdi Charef sketches a lucid cross-section of life on the wrong side of the tracks. Pat (Remi Martin) and Madjid (Kader Boukhanef) live in the squalor and isolation of a housing project — neither wants a “respectable job,” and so they pimp, steal, pick up women, and nurse their dreams. Pat’s dream is to live off a rich woman in a warm climate, but Madjid has a desire much closer to home…Read More »

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