In this prequel of sorts to Wesh Wesh, Ameur-Zaïmeche reprises his role as Kamel, filming the French convict’s exile in a remote Algerian village where he encounters the stirrings of civil war and a budding singer driven to the edge of madness by her family’s rejection.
This groundbreaking second feature finds the director achieving his idiosyncratic style, immersing his characters in documentary scenes and honing his talent for a lyrical, allusive mise en scène that yields a riveting indictment of fanaticism and a privileged glimpse of life in the Algerian mountains.
