EXCLUSIVE: Algerian filmmaker Yanis Koussim debuts his first characteristic, Roqia, a horror primarily based on the bloody historical past of Nineties Algeria, this week in Venice. Try the movie’s first teaser above.
The movie’s synopsis reads: In 1993, after a automotive crash leaves Ahmed amnesiac, he returns to his village, the place nothing feels acquainted—not his spouse, not his youngsters. His youngest, frightened by Ahmed’s bandaged face, fears him deeply. Every evening, unusual guests whisper litanies in an unknown tongue. Who’re they? And why does his so-called good friend, the neighbour, make him really feel so uneasy?
Within the current, an ageing Raqi battles Alzheimer’s. As possessed folks communicate in international tongues and violence rises, Ahmed fears regaining reminiscence, whereas the disciple fears his grasp’s decline might unleash an historic evil.
Koussim directs from a screenplay he wrote. The forged consists of Ali Namous, Akram Djeghim, Mostefa Djadjam, Hanaa Mansour, and Lydia Hanni. Farès Ladjimi (Supernova Movies) produced the movie, which is a France, Algeria, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia co-production. Alpha Violet is dealing with gross sales.
Koussim studied at La Fémis. He has directed a number of brief movies, together with Khouya, which nabbed awards at Locarno, Amiens, and was a part of the Official Choice at Clermont-Ferrand. He later contributed to the documentary A Summer time in Algiers: the Night time, which premiered on the Palais de Tokyo, and co-wrote the screenplays of I Nonetheless Disguise to Smoke by R. Obermayer in addition to El Zahia, the following characteristic by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri. He’s the founding father of Plateau19, a collective of filmmakers advocating for impartial cinema in Algeria.
Try the teaser above.
