Elles (The Women). 1966. Algeria. Written and directed by Ahmed Lallem. Assistant director Sarah Maldoror. In French; English subtitles. DCP. 22 min.
Born in 1940 in Sétif, Algeria, Ahmed Lallem was one of independent Algeria’s most distinguished filmmakers. He interned in Yugoslavian television, studied at the Łódź Film School in Poland and IDHEC in Paris, collaborated with the filmmaker Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina in Tunis, and met with controversy as a war reporter and member of the FLN before making this breakthrough short in 1966. Elles is an illuminating portrait of Algerian teenage girls who reflect on their future as women in an independent but conservative Algeria. Lallem enlisted a young Sarah Maldoror as an assistant director to befriend the high school girls and gain their trust.
Le Passager du Tassili (The Passenger of Tassili). 1986. France/Algeria. Directed by Sarah Maldoror. Screenplay by Albert Kantof, Akli Tadjer, based on a novel by Tadjer. With Lounès Tazairt, Smaïn, Anne Caudry. In French; English subtitles. DCP. 88 min.
Based on a loosely autobiographical novel by the Franco-Algerian writer Akli Tadjer, this late feature film by Sarah Maldoror captures the author’s distinctive voice of gently absurdist comedy and tenderness, following one A.N.I (“unidentified Arab”), Omar, who visits Algeria, the land of his ancestors, before returning in a state of bemused resignation to the Parisian suburbs where he grew up.