ALGIERS

The kidnapping of a little girl creates tension and suspicion in Algiers. Only Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist, and Sami, a police inspector, can unearth the demons of the past. 

• A sordid police investigation in the heart of Algiers: such is the thrilling premise of this debut feature film… The city’s maze of streets and alleyways, its cacophony, and even its squalor are all brought to life through the film’s energetic direction in this Canadian co-production. … The film has the merit of presenting a complex “heroine” (the excellent Meriem Medjkane), culturally at odds with her environment, who maintains an air of mystery right to the end.
  Translated from Mediafilm article by ChatGPT 

• One of the film’s greatest strengths lies in its subtle intertwining of the personal and the political—in other words, in the fusion of fictional narrative with the Algerian socio-political context. In the background, a quiet social critique unfolds, while the distant rumble of a popular uprising can be heard. A poignant tribute to those forgotten on the margins of History.
  Translated from Le Devoir article by ChatGPT 

• One of the film’s greatest strengths lies in its subtle intertwining of the personal and the political—in other words, in the fusion of fictional narrative with the Algerian socio-political context. In the background, a quiet social critique unfolds, while the distant rumble of a popular uprising can be heard. A poignant tribute to those forgotten on the margins of History.
  Translated from La Presse article by ChatGPT 

• In Algiers, the movie, emotions are raw, and the characters belong in the grand pantheon of those who interpret the world — each one is remarkable. They speak in Algerian Arabic, of course, a musical language with its own particular, direct sense of humor, interspersed with French words or phrases, as if the years of French colonization had left no mark on the language. This seems to be a deliberate stance by the filmmaker, especially through the character of the psychiatrist (the magnificent Meriem Medjkane) — a highly Westernized protagonist in a part of the world where Arabization and daily life coexist in a plural form, caught between East and West, as is also the case in Tunisia, and even more so in Morocco.
  Translated from KinoCulture Montreal  article by ChatGPT 

• Mostra de València-Cinema del Mediterrani – Spain 2024 
•  Kerala International Film Festival – India 2024 
• The Carthage Film Festival – Tunisia – 2024 
• Fribourg International Film Festival – Germany 2025 
• Amman International Film Festival –Jordan 2025 

• Flicker’s Rhode Island Festival – USA 2024  Winner Grand Prize Best Feature – Khaled Chikhi – Yasmine Dhoukar – Chakib Taleb-Bendiab – Patricia Chica- Nassim El Mounabbih 
• Winner Grand Prize Best Feature  Chakib Taleb-Bendiab (Director)
• Fribourg International Film Festival – Germany  2025 Nominee  CH Cinema Network Award Meurtres et mystères. Chakib Taleb-Bendiab (director) – Khaled Chikhi (producer) 
• Amman International Film Festival –J ordan 2025 Nominee Jury Award Best Feature Arab narrative Chakib Taleb-Bendiab (director)