A tender tribute to her Algerian grandparents, who emigrated to the French medieval city of Thiers within the Nineteen Fifties, Lina Soualem’s touching documentary reveals how the act of filming can awaken recollections which have lengthy laid dormant. Aïcha, the bubbly matriarch, seems to be youthful past her years, and might’t assist however lapse into suits of shy giggles when prodded with questions on love and marriage. Husband Mabrouk is starkly withdrawn in distinction to her infectious heat. Because the couple determine to separate after 62 years of marriage, residence movies of household celebrations turn out to be much more bittersweet of their fragile vibrancy.
A well-recognized face in French cinema, Soualem’s father, Zinedine Soualem, says with a matter-of-fact unhappiness that Mabrouk by no means complimented him on the success of his profession. Consequently the documentary looks like Lina Soualem’s try to interrupt a cycle of generational miscommunication and repression. Unfolding with the mild casualness of on a regular basis dialog, her interviews along with her grandparents not solely draw her nearer to their private historical past but additionally paint a vivid image of the hardships endured by Algerian immigrants in Nineteen Fifties France. Mabrouk, for instance, was amongst numerous Algerian younger males employed on low wages by a cutlery manufacturing unit in Thiers. The loud noises ensuing from the manufacturing of shiny knives and forks would later render many of those staff deaf.
All through her movie, Lina Soualem solely seems in a tiny sq. on Zoom calls or as a bit woman in previous household residence films. But her presence is felt in her voice, floating out and in of conversations, and in the best way she lovingly images her grandparents, right down to Mabrouk’s white panama hat. Their Algeria not solely travels to the previous, it’s also Soualem’s journey to find her personal Algeria.
