Merzak Allouache

Young Boualem just wants a little quiet, a little space to be himself and follow his desires. He works six nights a week at a French bakery in the impoverished section of Algiers known as Bab el-Oued, and then returns to his room to sink into well-earned sleep. However, right on the rooftop of his apartment building is a loudspeaker from the local mosque, incessantly blaring out admonitions and condemnations in a pounding, mind-numbing monotone. It is a North African version of 1984 and Big Brother. Finally, Boualem can take it no more. In a fit of madness, he tears down the loudspeaker and throws it into the sea. Boualem is quickly filled with guilt and apprehension for what he has done. He is a decent young man and a believer, and desecrating the property of the mosque is a sin.. But more than that, he quickly finds himself the quarry of a relentless pursuit.
Read More »

Quote:
After the riots of December and the first peaceful marches, while “the Arab Spring” begins in Tunisia and Egypt, Fouzi wants his actors together to show them the incomplete editing of the film he made, two years ago, on the disillusionment of a youth seeking to express his artistic ideas. He seeks an alternative view, especially an ending. He relies on the reactions of his actors to invent a new conclusion to his story, in a country suddenly lifted by a wave of protests. A new vision of today’s Algerian youth, in the middle of a new political and artistic questioning.Read More »

Description from IMDB:
“Set in the northern Algerian port city of Mostaganem. The title refers to the hordes of refugees, the ‘Harragas’, who smuggle themselves out of the country via any means possible. Here we meet one such group, Rachid, Nasser and Imene who pay a smuggler, Hassan, to take them to Spain in his rickety boat. Along with a group of African and Arab migrants, they are risking all they have to cross the stormy Straits.”Read More »