During the “black decade” of the 1990s, an oppressive system doomed women’s rights in Algeria, and the Civil War in the African country brought them back to obscurantism. Director Mounia Meddour decided to move from making documentaries to directing her first feature loosely based on her experiences around those tumultuous years in college.
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| Mounia Meddour, "Papicha" director at COLCOA. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo. Festival in LA ©2019 |
In Meddour’s intimate story, the hero is a young woman named Nedjma “Papicha,” played by Lyna Khoudri, winner of the Best Actress Venice Horizons award for the 2017 film “The Blessed.”
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| Papicha, Jour 2 Fete ©2019 |
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| Papicha, Jour 2 Fete ©2019 |
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| Papicha, Jour 2 Fete ©2019 |
The project took five years to make and many script drafts. The female director expressed that “Papicha” was hard to put together. The film’s subject matter is still a sensitive topic for the authorities. Once she got financing, Meddour could show her country’s reality accurately and vividly, thanks to her background as a documentarian.
The opposition against women’s liberation in Algeria has never been seen so vividly and realistically until “Papicha.”
Meddour started production with mostly non-professional actors in the cast. The most challenging task in making the project was editing the film because, in every take, the actors had different dialogs. The director gave the actors plenty of freedom to improvise on the set.
The actresses had plenty of time to rehearse and lived together in the same house for a week before filming. Their natural performances enlighten the screen, making out of “Papicha” a delightful movie to watch.
Other
contemporary films dramatize the women’s struggle for emancipation in the Middle
East, such as this year’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, “Atlantics.” Also, “Adam,” a
cathartic film about women who want to live free from old biases. Another
relevant project about sexual repression in Morocco is “Muchly Loved,” directed
by Nabil Ayouch in 2015. “Mustang,” the French-Turkish Oscar nominee, ends up in
tragedy over women’s awaking. “Divines,” made in France, shows a young woman of
color fighting for a chance to survive in a violent city.
The Afghan feature “Hava,
Maryam, Ayesha” relates three feminist stories about their struggles dealing
with chauvinistic men in their culture. Finally, the Canadian production
“Antigone” is the story of a young African/Muslim immigrant struggling in
Quebec’s courts to keep her family together and out of trouble.
In many Muslim countries, men use religion as oppression to submit to women for their benefit. Women’s struggle in Algerian society gets proper acknowledgment through this brave piece. Part of the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes 2019, “Papicha” was also selected as the Official Algerian submission for Best International Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Daring and splendid, “Papicha” responds to the imperative necessity of World Cinema serving as a tool in the women’s fight for equal rights.
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| Mounia Meddour, “Papicha” director at COLCOA. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo. Festival in LA ©2019 |
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| Mounia Meddour, “Papicha” director at COLCOA. Film critic José Alberto Hermosillo. Photo José Alberto Hermosillo. Festival in LA ©2019 |
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