Product Details

• Actors: Cylia Malki, Baya Belal, Jean-Roger Milo, Fatima Ben Saïdane, Deborah Lamy
• Directors: Mehdi Charef
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Arabic (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
• DVD Release Date: June 20, 2006
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000F6IHR2
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,388 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review
In addition to the film's considerable emotional core, it also offers insights on the unsavory plight of Algerian women. --The Patriot Ledger (Boston)

Product Description
A 19 year-old Swiss woman travels to her birthplace-- an isolated, barren Berber settlement in the mountainous desert landscape of Algeria-- to find her biological mother, who she has never met. The perilous journey immerses her in a world virtually untouched by contemporary society, one that still clings to tribal mores and strict religious codes of conduct.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Happiness Is Coming, Push", March 22, 2008

By	Brian E. Erland "Rainbow Sphinx" (Brea, CA - USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Note: French and Arabic with English subtitles.

The '01 film by Mehdi Charef is a superbly conceived, expertly realized film dealing with contemporary angst in isolation. It's a story about a courageous young woman named Rallia (Cylia Malki) and her journey from her home and adoptive family in Geneva, Switzerland to her place of birth in a remote, mountainous region of Algeria in search of a Mother and family she has never known. Arriving at the village of her origin she discovers her Grandfather and crazy Aunt (Baya Belai) but her Mother, Keltoum is nowhere to be found. She is told that Keltoum works in a city some distance away and Rallia and her Aunt go on an illuminating "journey of discovery" to reunite Mother and daughter.

The on-screen relationship between Cylia Malki and Babya Belai is amazinginly touching, moving back and forth between cultural isolation, lighthearted sillyness, vehement hatred and deep longing and emotive expressions of love and tenderness. While the relationship between these two is the basis of the film you'll also find yourself entranced by the barren, empty spaces of the landscape surrounding them and a first rate soundtrack.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning film!, April 25, 2007

By	Mark Porter (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A stunningly beautiful, yet stark film. Transports you to a world few of us know exist, and even fewer will ever visit. The cinematography is amazing, capturing the landscape so dusty you'll sweat and wipe your own brow! And the storyline under it...equally amazing! Characters that seem quite simple yet turn out to be complex with plot twists that sneak up on you. Underlying it all, a place so real, yet so different that it can be difficult to comprehend life there! This is NOT an action movie, think in the spirit of "Waiting for the Moon". Highly recommended!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Young Woman's Search For Her Roots, March 6, 2008

By	K. Jeannette (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

Nineteen-year old Rallia comes from her adoptive home in Switzerland to the Berbers of Algeria to find the mother who abandoned her as a baby. Unlike her childhood dreams of a mountain paradise, she finds a primitive world where the struggle for survival coexists with a patriarchal subjection of women. The film is a fascinating look at a very different culture and the reaction of European-raised Rallia to it. Although she is often traveling the dusty desert by foot or by bus seeking her birth mother, one doesn't lose interest, because she becomes involved with many people and situations along the way, and we too want her to find her mother and make peace with her biological heritage.