15/10/2024 - Hassan Guerrar delivers a generous, moving and free first feature film, set in the heart of working-class Paris and exploring the complexities of dual nationality and identity

In a park, at a turning point in one of the many street discussions characterising Hassan Guerrar’s Little Algérie [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - which is released in French cinemas on 16 October via Jour2Fête - American author Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man is mentioned, and it’s clearly no coincidence. In fact, in immersing his debut feature film in a Parisian neighbourhood populated by "people from all over the world, people who have been in the wars, people who have nothing to eat, people who experience misery every day, people who have nothing to lose", the neo-director (who’s also a very well-known press officer in the French film industry) is offering up a modern, simple, authentic and unpretentious French echo to this major literary work about the pitfall-strewn struggle for civil rights and integration.

Whilst the main character of Ellison’s book – a young, poor, black man from the southern states of America who dreams of escaping his condition – sets off for New York and makes his home in Harlem, it’s in Barbès - an incredibly working-class area of Paris (animated by street hawkers, young people playing cat and mouse with the police, food parcels for the needy, dealers, friendly local businesses, etc.) - that the film’s protagonist, French-Algerian Malek (an excellent Sofiane Zermani), sets up shop in the midst of the Covid lockdown. The boss of a small IT company based in a different area of the capital, this lonely thirty-something is waiting, like everyone else, for the health restrictions to be lifted, using them as an opportunity to explore his new neighbourhood. But a man (Nedjim Bouizzou) recognises him outside of the "Chorba-Couscous–Brochettes" coffee-shop and talks to Malek about the latter’s Algerian family, whom Malek clearly doesn’t want to talk about. His past seems to weigh heavily upon him and is soon brought to the forefront by the arrival of his nephew, Riyad (Khalil Gharbia), who’s stuck in Paris on account of the pandemic and looking for accommodation. The tumultuous streets of Barbès begin to hold up a mirror to Malek, revealing small everyday pleasures and buried sorrows, reconnection yet unease over his roots…

Interwoven with an undeniably humanist thread and full of glorious meanderings, Little Algérie paints a very realistic and affectionate portrait of a cosmopolitan area where resourcefulness ("I find solutions to problems which don’t even exist") and mutual support are second nature, whilst also being honest about its darker sides (homesickness, poverty, the tortuous life of homeless people, potential violence, etc.). It’s a delicate tightrope between self-sacrifice and melancholy which the director treads soberly, much like his main character who has become a stranger to his own family and is consumed by existential questions over his identity. This introspection ("look into my eyes: you didn’t want anything to do with me when I arrived, you dumped me before you left") resonates deep within the heart of this man but also on both sides of the Mediterranean, making for an engaging and honourable film buoyed by solid actors (Clotilde Coureau, Eye Haïdara, Adila Bendimerad, Khaled Benaissa) and wonderful photography (headed up by Amine Berrada) and music (Armand Amar).

Little Algérie was produced by East Films and 24 25 Films in co-production with Chelifilms. Goodfellas are overseeing international sales.

(Translated from French)