Idir Benaibouche

Soula Bahri plays herself in Salah Issaad’s debut feature, a road movie about a young single mother rejected by her family for dishonouring them and by a society that does not care about people like her. Trying to make it through the night with her baby, she sets out along the roads of Algeria only to find herself caught up, through a series of unfortunate encounters, in a spiral of violence. Soula is an extraordinary portrait of a woman under pressure, both from those closest to her and a society riddled with contradictions.

Up bright and early with their pet in tow, Zohra Bouderbala and her five children are heading to the beach. This is not a drill! In Algiers, the coveted front row spot waits for no one, but it’s not this family’s first time having to beat the summer seaside crowds. The unmotivated and out-of-luck masses who arrive too late will be left to a viewless laze in the sun, the alleged horizon blocked by a fortress of parasols and flowing canopies.