Viva Laldjerie (Hooray for Algeria) portrays three women Goucem (Lubna Azabal), her mother Papicha (Baya Bouzar stage name Biyouna), a former night club performer and her friend Fifi (Nadia Kaci), a prostitute set against the background of the terror attacks of the Algerian civil war. Goucem and her mother have come into Algiers flying their home in a town controlled by Islamists.
Viva Ladjerie does not attempt to discuss the rights and wrongs of either side in the Algerian civil war. It does show the impact of it on the three perspective characters.
Goucem though in a dead end job at a photography shop and in a dead end relationship with a doctor projects strength. She cuts her own path in dealing with men. However despite her break with the tradition role of women in Islam, when she appears in public in revealing Western clothes, Goucem wears a sheet over her dress. The prostitute Fifi goes one step further. Fifi covers her hair and mouth as part of her clever duplicitious act in public.
Old and new overlap throughout the movie. On streets that look like they could be part of Europe, you can hear the call to prayer. Goucem tells the soothsayer that Fifi drags her to, "This is 2003!" The soothsayer replies, "Then what are you doing here?"
There's a sad end for Fifi who despite her occupation is a good person, but Papicha does fulfill her dream of being restored to the limelight after she tracks down the owner of a club which closed its doors. Having opened a new club La Gorge Rouge (The Red Throat? The Red Gulch?), and having inherited the clientele of all the old Algiers clubs where Papicha used to danse, the owner puts Papicha on stage as a chanteuse.
In the end, Goucem is permitted to overcome red tape in order to bury Fifi, killed by her client the police official but Goucem's story nonetheless ends as one of hope, meeting new friends in the park.
Viva Ladjerie does not attempt to discuss the rights and wrongs of either side in the Algerian civil war. It does show the impact of it on the three perspective characters.
Goucem though in a dead end job at a photography shop and in a dead end relationship with a doctor projects strength. She cuts her own path in dealing with men. However despite her break with the tradition role of women in Islam, when she appears in public in revealing Western clothes, Goucem wears a sheet over her dress. The prostitute Fifi goes one step further. Fifi covers her hair and mouth as part of her clever duplicitious act in public.
Old and new overlap throughout the movie. On streets that look like they could be part of Europe, you can hear the call to prayer. Goucem tells the soothsayer that Fifi drags her to, "This is 2003!" The soothsayer replies, "Then what are you doing here?"
There's a sad end for Fifi who despite her occupation is a good person, but Papicha does fulfill her dream of being restored to the limelight after she tracks down the owner of a club which closed its doors. Having opened a new club La Gorge Rouge (The Red Throat? The Red Gulch?), and having inherited the clientele of all the old Algiers clubs where Papicha used to danse, the owner puts Papicha on stage as a chanteuse.
In the end, Goucem is permitted to overcome red tape in order to bury Fifi, killed by her client the police official but Goucem's story nonetheless ends as one of hope, meeting new friends in the park.