Viva Laldjérie

Fiction, director: Nadir Moknèche, Algeria/France/Belgium, 2004, 130 min., Fr. with En. ST

> 01.05.2023 | 21.30 | Arsenal |

Algiers, winter 2003. Three women, a mother, her daughter and a sex worker have been living in a hotel in the centre of town since the start of the violence due to the rise of fundamentalism. Goucem (Lubna Azabal), the daughter, has made an emancipated life for herself, working for a photographer, taking a generous, married lover and spending steamy weekends in nightclubs. Fifi (Nadia Kaci), her faithful friend, prostitutes herself, under the thumb of a powerful and “kind” protector. Papicha (Biyouna), the mother, eats pizzas in front of the TV, torn between fear and the nostalgia of her former fame as a cabaret dancer. In an Algiers bustling with life and possibilities, but where fear and violence limits personal liberties, these three women resolutely refuse to give up the fight. Viva Laldjérie is a tale of individual growth in a paradoxical city where traditional values vie with a pragmatic tone of every-man-for-himself.