The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul presents:
Demande à ton Ombre, by Lamine Ammar-Khodja, 83 min, France, Algeria, 2012.
Arabic, French with English Subtitles
Documentary
Special screening Nov. 7 at 4:30pm followed by a Q&A with Director Lamine Ammar-Khodja
Special Screening:
Film discussion with director Lamine Ammar-Khodja and professor Patricia Lorcin, Department of History, University of Minnesota.
Eight years after leaving native Algeria for France, Lamine
Ammar-Khodja decides to end his exile on January 6, 2011, the day major
riots break out in Algiers. Organised chronologically, the film is a
first-person narrative and, just like Aimé Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal,
to which the director pays tribute, it deals with the difficulties of
getting back home. Because this journey isn’t only a private matter, but
also an opportunity to go back over Algeria’s recent history, at a time
when it could have taken another major turn. The subject is addressed
in the tone of comedy, using humour and irony, instead of expected
despair. Cheerfully mixing styles, playing freely and gracefully with
the cinema medium, and claiming rebellious youth in the name of all the
young outcasts, this first film surely reveals an original artistic
stance and writing: a new director is born. (by Jean-Pierre Rehm)
Director Biography: Lamine
Ammar-Khodja was born in Algeria in 1983, and grew up in the suburb of
Bab Ezzouar. He later moved to France in 2003. His previous short films
include: Algiers Less Than Zero, '56 South, How to Reframe an Outlaw by Pulling at a Thread. His first feature documentary film Ask Your Shadow was selected in FID Marseille 2012 and received the First Film Prize.
Meet with the Director:
The director is looking forward to meeting our students at all levels
for an informal discussion around themes and topics raised by the
attendees. The informal discussion, which will take place in Nolte 125,
will start at 3:00 and end at 4:00 on November 7. Students may arrive
at any time during the meeting if they are not able to be in attendance
right at 3:00.
Sponsored by: Institute
for Global Studies, Department of French and Italian, European Studies
Consortium, Mediterranean Initiative, and The Film Society of
Minneapolis St. Paul
