I found this movie pretentious and lacking believability. For one thing, I was turned off by the fact that the language of choice was French although the story is in Algeria and the characters are Algerians. I would understand this if the story was about Algerian immigrants or second generation Algerians in Europe, but that is not the case. I do not understand French or Arabic either way, but I found it bizarre, as if the director/producers shied away from Arabic to appeal to French speaking crowd for commercial reasons.
The character development is also quite weak here, even for a slice-of-life movie. The director seems to be under the impression that leaving many bits and pieces unconnected would intrigue the audience, but I found it simply annoying. There is a back story for the Goucem's (main character) mother (Bouyane) to be seriously afraid from fundamentalists and you know it has something to do with her past as a singer and dancer, yet you do not have hint of what really happened. They talk about terrorism of the Islamists, but that also does not develop into anything, even as a few scenes in the backdrop. What about the character of Samir? He seems to be infatuated with Goucem, yet we never know why and how it started. Let's get to the guys who went after Goucem's neighbor Fifi, what is their real motivation? There is a difference between intrigue and leaving a lot of stuff up in the air, and I think the director ended up doing the latter.
Finally, let's look at the acting. I do not think they were believable as Algerians living in Algeria. Other than the way the characters dressed, I really could not see the 'Algerian' touch here! I like watching international movies, always hoping to see something that is new, or seeing something through a different point of view, but I simply felt cheated watching this movie.
The character development is also quite weak here, even for a slice-of-life movie. The director seems to be under the impression that leaving many bits and pieces unconnected would intrigue the audience, but I found it simply annoying. There is a back story for the Goucem's (main character) mother (Bouyane) to be seriously afraid from fundamentalists and you know it has something to do with her past as a singer and dancer, yet you do not have hint of what really happened. They talk about terrorism of the Islamists, but that also does not develop into anything, even as a few scenes in the backdrop. What about the character of Samir? He seems to be infatuated with Goucem, yet we never know why and how it started. Let's get to the guys who went after Goucem's neighbor Fifi, what is their real motivation? There is a difference between intrigue and leaving a lot of stuff up in the air, and I think the director ended up doing the latter.
Finally, let's look at the acting. I do not think they were believable as Algerians living in Algeria. Other than the way the characters dressed, I really could not see the 'Algerian' touch here! I like watching international movies, always hoping to see something that is new, or seeing something through a different point of view, but I simply felt cheated watching this movie.