Office des Actualités Algériennes

A sunny seaside town... Jean and Catherine are in love. They are young, beautiful, and poor. One of Jean's friends suggests he rob the cash box of a traveling circus. But the plan goes wrong: a circus employee is seriously injured, and Jean is arrested. He chooses to proclaim his innocence. To force him to confess and denounce his accomplice, the two detectives in charge of the investigation devise a Machiavellian plan...

In a village on the edge of the Sahara, Rima, a 19-year-old orphan, dreams of learning, of discovering, of living free while the men of the salt mine go on strike. The authorities react by sending the army, Rima decides to help the strikers by trapping the soldiers. Co-produced with the Office des Actualités Algériens and shot in the region of Téhouda, 50 kilometers from Biskra, this Franco-Algerian film is fully part of the cinematographic heritage of both shores of the Mediterranean. Bertuccelli adopts the technique of cinema verite, with non-professional actors from the village itself, giving the film a striking documentary texture and a rare force of authenticity. Carried by the moving interpretation of Leila Shenna in the role of Rima, the actor Krikèche and lulled by the music of Taos Amrouche, the film questions female emancipation, social resistance and the relationship with the territory.