A searing film about the growing tension between secular and fundamentalist Algerians that would plunge Algeria into a blood bath soon after this movie was made.
The tendency of an oppressed society to self-mutilation is made painfully palpable: nobody is happy and nobody CAN be happy; nobody can enjoy even what they love; only hatred and despair are left. And the longing, somehow, to escape.
All the participants act as though their lives depended on it: especially unforgettable is the strikingly beautiful Hassan Abdou (listed as Abidou by IMDb) whose unique face seems to embody all the happiness that could be, but isn't.
