The shrill serial-killer thriller Algiers, which was this year’s international feature Oscar submission from Algeria, made a splashy appearance in the Amman Intl. Film Festival’s socially-inclined Arab Narrative Feature competition, though a closer look at this transposed French policier reveals that it, too, contains a number of social issues in its classic tale of a little orphan girl who is snatched off the city’s mean streets while her small brother looks on helplessly. With a lot of powerful midnight-madness crossover energy in this feature debut by writer-director Chakib Taleb-Bendiab, genre fans should take notice and look for his next outing.
If there’s one thing the film is good at capturing, also thanks to D.P. Ikbal Arafa, it’s atmosphere, and the twisting up-and-down streets of Algiers after dark create a garish suspense all by themselves. One muggy evening, while the city is grappling with a water shortage, kids are playing games in the street when a black car swoops down on them and nabs Azhar. The little girl is sucked through a car window like she was being eaten by a monster.
Rather too suddenly, the police are on the scene, led by the angry young chief inspector Sami Sadoudi (Nabil Asli). There is a suspect, Fouzi, an unbalanced homeless man who sleeps in a parking lot, and there is a dangerous lynch mob gathering around him. Sadoudi and his cynical deputy Khaled (Hicham Mesbah) are in the thick of it with their hands full, when they are joined by an unwelcome third cop: Dr. Dounia Assam (Meriem Medjkane). Mousey but courageous and completely single-minded, she ignores every order from her furious superior to beat it. It’s obvious she and Sami are going to fall in love.
But first there is a girl to find. Dr. Dounia, a police psychiatrist specialized in PTSD, announces she has to be found within 48 hours, or statistics say she is dead. To rack up the tension, she sets a clock on a countdown and stares at it nervously. There are broad hints that she knows what traumatic stress is first-hand, but this important thread is never followed up clearly. Has she been assaulted as a child herself? Her breathless interview with a neighbor woman who looked out for Azhar suggests a personal connection to the crime, but that’s as far as we get into the doctor’s backstory.
The first part of the film is burdened with the blatant misogyny and antagonism of Sami and Khaled toward Dounia, a relationship misfire that is drilled in long after it has become irritating. When Dounia is absent from a scene, Sami and Khaled squabble viciously and mutually threaten to leave the force. Khaled, the older and more jaded cop, has been formed by the Algerian civil war in the 1990s and claims the police are justified in using lethal force against suspects. Sami, an avid reader of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, takes a slightly higher road.
Amid outbursts of yelling and frantic action, including a wild, well-shot foot chase up endless staircases, they stage stakeouts, waiting to spot their man. At a certain point, young rookie Nabil (Ali Namous) joins them, confused as to whose orders to follow. Like Sami, he comes from Algiers’ lower depths and knows these streets like the back of his hand. But it’s obvious to most viewers they won’t be the ones who locate Azhar and catch the serial killer.
In the end, there’s too much missing from the story and too many easy “clues” and stereotypes to make Algiers a memorable variation on today’s hard-hitting police thrillers. But the genre energy is there and it will be worthwhile to see where the filmmaker will go next.
Director, screenwriter: Chakib Taleb-Bendiab
Producers: Khaled Chikhi, Yasmine Dhoukar
Cast: Meriem Medjkane, Nabil Asli, Hichem Mesbah, Ali Namous, Chahrazad Kracheni
Cinematography: Ikbal Arafa
Production design: Hamid Boughrara
Editing: Fouad Benhammou, Chakib Taleb-Bendiab
Music: Marielle de Rocca-Serra, Chakib Taleb-Bendiab
Production companies: Temple Production (Algeria), Clandestino Production (Tunisia), Dinosaures (France), Flirt Films (Canada)
World sales: MAD Solutions
Venue: Amman International Film Festival (Arab Narrative Competition)
In Arabic
92 minutes
