The Other World
(L'Autre Monde)
With Marie Brahimi, Karim Bouaiche, Nazim Boudjenah.
Algeria/France, 2001, 35mm, color, 95 min.
French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Inspired by the realities of Algeria's civil war, The Other World takes viewers on a journey into the madness of the country's recent political and religious conflict. Yasmine and Rachid, two young Parisians who are the children of Algerian immigrants, live a quiet life in France. When Rachid disappears, Yasmine learns that he is in Algeria, and decides to follow him. Taking a ferry across the Mediterranean, she enters a country filled with violence, where the veterans of the war in Afghanistan are waging a campaign of terror against the Algerian government. As in his earlier films, Allouache uses an understated style of direction, relying on small details and the humanity of his characters to create tension and capture the desolation that the civil war inflicted on the Algerian people.