Their Algeria
After sixty-two years of living together, Aïcha and Mabrouk, my grandparents, are separating. They now live in two separate buildings, facing each other. I didn’t understand their separation. No one explained it to me. I didn't know their story. No one told it to me. Their silence troubled me.
Aïcha and Mabrouk got married in 1952, in the village of Laouamer in Algeria, without knowing each other. Two years later, they settled in Thiers, a small medieval French town where they have been living for over sixty years. Mabrouk worked his entire life as a polisher in a knife-making factory. Aïcha followed a husband she did not know to an unknown country and started a family with him.
As I try to understand their separation, it leads me back to Algeria and to the silence that exile has imposed on two generations: my father’s and mine. I discover the persistent suffering of their uprooting. An uprooting they can’t put a name to. With them, and with the help of my father Zinedine, I’m off to search for this story of exile, of bonds that are unmade, of suffering and pride—which profoundly affected my grandparents and an entire generation of Algerians who immigrated to France. Through the intimate portrait of Aïcha and Mabrouk, the film shines a light on the distances we carry within ourselves and perpetuate with those we love, while unpacking and documenting the indelible suffering of a colonized mind.
About the filmmaker:
Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress born and based in Paris. After studying history and political science at La Sorbonne University, she started working in journalism and as a programmer in film festivals, looking to combine her interests for cinema and the study of contemporary Arab societies. Lina worked as a programmer for the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires and the Palest’In&Out Festival in Paris, among others.
In 2019, Lina’s debut feature documentary Their Algeria, produced by AGAT Films & Cie received the Best Doc-in-progress award at the Doc Corner in Cannes Film Festival. Their Algeria premiered in Visions du Réel International Film Festival 2020. Soualem has acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass, and Rayhana. She is currently developing her second feature documentary and works as an author and assistant director on fiction, series, and documentary projects.
- Year2020
- Runtime82 minutes
- LanguageArabic, French
- CountryAlgeria, France
- DirectorLina Soualem
- ProducerMarie Balducchi
- CastAïcha Aidaoui Soualem, Mabrouk Soualem, Zinedine Soualem, Nabil Soualem, Salem Laidaoui
Their Algeria
After sixty-two years of living together, Aïcha and Mabrouk, my grandparents, are separating. They now live in two separate buildings, facing each other. I didn’t understand their separation. No one explained it to me. I didn't know their story. No one told it to me. Their silence troubled me.
Aïcha and Mabrouk got married in 1952, in the village of Laouamer in Algeria, without knowing each other. Two years later, they settled in Thiers, a small medieval French town where they have been living for over sixty years. Mabrouk worked his entire life as a polisher in a knife-making factory. Aïcha followed a husband she did not know to an unknown country and started a family with him.
As I try to understand their separation, it leads me back to Algeria and to the silence that exile has imposed on two generations: my father’s and mine. I discover the persistent suffering of their uprooting. An uprooting they can’t put a name to. With them, and with the help of my father Zinedine, I’m off to search for this story of exile, of bonds that are unmade, of suffering and pride—which profoundly affected my grandparents and an entire generation of Algerians who immigrated to France. Through the intimate portrait of Aïcha and Mabrouk, the film shines a light on the distances we carry within ourselves and perpetuate with those we love, while unpacking and documenting the indelible suffering of a colonized mind.
About the filmmaker:
Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress born and based in Paris. After studying history and political science at La Sorbonne University, she started working in journalism and as a programmer in film festivals, looking to combine her interests for cinema and the study of contemporary Arab societies. Lina worked as a programmer for the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires and the Palest’In&Out Festival in Paris, among others.
In 2019, Lina’s debut feature documentary Their Algeria, produced by AGAT Films & Cie received the Best Doc-in-progress award at the Doc Corner in Cannes Film Festival. Their Algeria premiered in Visions du Réel International Film Festival 2020. Soualem has acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass, and Rayhana. She is currently developing her second feature documentary and works as an author and assistant director on fiction, series, and documentary projects.
- Year2020
- Runtime82 minutes
- LanguageArabic, French
- CountryAlgeria, France
- DirectorLina Soualem
- ProducerMarie Balducchi
- CastAïcha Aidaoui Soualem, Mabrouk Soualem, Zinedine Soualem, Nabil Soualem, Salem Laidaoui