Abou Leila

The traumas of the 1990s Black Decade continue to torment Algerian society, literature and cinema. At the outset, a date, a place, Algiers, 1994, set out as a pointer, but seemingly placed crossways over Amin Sidi-Boumédine’s first feature. Here, history is not the usual journey travelled between a point of departure and hypothetical place of arrival, but rather a shadow that sticks to the road like a series of accidents. As we set off with Lotfi and S. in the car heading to the south of the county to track down a terrorist, we soon understand that it is anguish that serves as engine for the two pursuers, who are themselves terrified. JB