Watch me if you can! Un cinéma algérien en quête de diffusion et de réception

Authors

Salima Tenfiche, CERILAC, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot

Abstract

After a civil war that left more than 200 000 dead in Algeria in the 1990s, the return to peace in 2003 and the rise in the price of oil allowed Algerian cinema to return to the international scene. The state has invested several billion Algerian dinars since 2005 to revive film production and start renovating the country's four hundred movie theaters that had been abandoned since the late 1980s. Today, fifty-three movie theaters are functional throughout Algeria, yet they do not open their doors to the public. These movie theaters are still perceived as shady places, and they struggle to attract a large and regular audience. In a country where the majority of cinemas are still managed and run by the public authorities, corruption and this lack of patronage constitute major obstacles to the distribution of films. As the films of the new generation of Algerian filmmakers remain invisible in their own country, they circulate and find distributors abroad in international festivals. The Algerian public can only view them on French or European channels. These independent films, which call into question the national myth, do not conform to the taste of the public commission tasked with granting film visas. In addition, the state productions of national glorification, which are not distributed in theaters either, are broadcast on Algerian public television. With the exception of a dozen movie theaters equipped with DCP, the open theaters in Algiers mainly show pirated DVDs of American productions, including action movies and horror films, that young people love. By introducing comedies and animated movies, the city of Algiers is trying to attract families to its theaters so that the weekly night out to the movies may become a cultural habit again.

Recommended Citation

Tenfiche, Salima (2020) "Watch me if you can! Un cinéma algérien en quête de diffusion et de réception," Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature: Vol. 95: No. 1, Article 8.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/pf/vol95/iss1/8