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Houria

Another Un Certain Regard breakout filmmaker, Mounia Meddour quietly began filming her sophomore film this past September on a project that reunited her with her Papicha (César Award for Best First Feature Film) stars Lyna Khoudri and Amira Hilda Douaouda. Filmed in Algeria and France, Houria pursues the female empowerment agenda looking at personal triumphant tussling with personal tragedy. Rachida Brakni stars as well. She reteams with cinematographer Léo Lefèvre (most recently worked on Luzzu) The Ink Connection’s Xavier Gens (Meddour’s hubby) and Gregoire Gensollen will produce with High Sea Productions’ Patrick André.

Gist: Khoudri stars as a young woman who is passionate about ballet dancing and experiences a trauma.…...

Mounia Meddour, the director of the Cesar-winning film “Papicha” that also played to acclaim at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2019, will next direct “Houria,” an Algeria-set drama headlined by “Papicha” star Lyna Khoudri.

Meddour, who is on the jury of this year’s Un Certain Regard, wrote the original screenplay for “Houria.”

The film is set in contemporary Algeria and will star Khoudri (“The French Dispatch”) as a young woman who is passionate about ballet dancing and experiences a trauma. Following this personal tragedy, she meets other women who have experienced similar situations and finds a creative way to pursue her passion. Besides Khoudri, who has become one of France’s hottest actors, “Houria” will star Amira Hilda Douaouda, another “Papicha” actor, as well as Rachida Brakni (“Baron Noir’).

“Like ‘Papicha,’ ‘Houria’ will tell the story of strong-willed women on their paths to resilience and emancipation which are themes that drive me,...

"The party's over, Papicha." Peccadillo Pictures in the UK has debuted an official UK trailer for Papicha, an Algerian film which originally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section last year. Set in Algiers in 1997, following four women trying to navigate an oppressive life in Algeria just as the civil war is about to get worse and change everything forever. "Lifting the lid on the radical events of the Algerian Civil War, Mounia Meddour's Papicha follows the trials and tribulations of a group of determined young women as they come face to face with a new, dangerous reality." Starring Lyna Khoudri as Papicha, with Shirine Boutella, Nadia Kaci, Amira Hilda Douaouda, Zahra Doumandji, Yasin Houicha, Khalissa Houicha, and Meryem Medjkane. This looks like an excellent and brutally honest look at life in Algeria in the 90s and how it was all about to change...

Among the record 92 submissions this year, 27 titles are directed or co-directed by women. There are six documentaries in the mix, as well as two animated features. Moreover, for the first time, Ghana and Uzbekistan are each fielding an entry. However, Nigeria’s submission was disqualified by the Academy as being mostly in the English language. Here’s a guide to the films, including logline and sales or production contact.

Albania

“The Delegation”

Director: Bujar Alimani

Logline: In autumn 1990,

a political prisoner is secretly taken out of jail to meet the head of the European delegation investigating human-rights violations. But nothing goes according to plan.

Key Cast: Viktor Zhusti, Ndriçim Xhepa, Xhevdet Feri

Sales: Art Film

Algeria

“Papicha”

Director: Mounia Meddour

Logline: A female student rebels against the bans set by radicals during the civil war and plans a fashion show.

Key Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda

Sales:...

Terrific lead characterizations and edgy camerawork hold their own against a problematic script in Mounia Meddour’s feature debut “Papicha.” This is a film designed to be championed by everyone wanting to support a woman’s right to self-expression: It’s got a female director (not a novelty in the Maghreb), depicts powerful young women refusing to bow down to fundamentalism, and is bursting with energy and likable figures. Yet the screenplay’s seams show so glaringly, and the finish is so tonally mismatched, that notwithstanding audience identification and the inevitable “loosely inspired by real events” tagline, “Papicha” feels conspicuously manipulative. That shouldn’t stall further fest play and Francophone distribution following the film’s Cannes premiere, though sales farther afield may prove more of a challenge.

The setting is Algiers in the 1990s, when the nation was roiled in a bloody civil war that pitted the less-than-democratic government against an increasingly violent Islamist insurgency.