Mohamed Rachid Benhadj
Directing
Biography
Mohamed Rachid Benhadj was born on July 12, 1949 in Algiers. Painter and architect, he graduated in cinema from the University of Paris and directed a short documentary film on immigrant workers in the Nice region. In 1979, he joined Algerian Radio Television where he directed several short and medium fiction films and documentaries including Le n° 49 in 1980. Le Fusil and Le Mirage in 1983. Mohamed Rachid Benhadj directed various advertising spots for the Ministry of Affairs Social in Algeria. Louss (Roses des Sables) is his first feature film
Known For
The isolated lives of people on a farm at the top of the mountains are changed by a ten-year-old child named Mirka.
Mirka
The true story of Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri, who grew up in poverty and illiteracy, with a violent father and a submissive mother who was the family's sole source of support.
For Bread Alone
Karima, a famous photographer who has been living in Paris for several years, is forced to return to Algiers after receiving a call from her mother informing her that her tyrannical father's health is rapidly declining. This forced return reawakens the scars and ghosts of a repressed past, especially when she learns that her brother has joined an armed group.
Parfums d'Alger
An oasis lost in the Saharan desert more than 700km from Algiers. A society still functioning on centuries-old rituals. The only connection to the city is a bus that passes once a day. Moussa, disabled from birth, lives there with his sister Zineb; They try, together, to reconstitute a family unit that the war has destroyed. The family is the dream of the idyllic times of childhood, of times when parents took all the responsibilities. Moussa is perfectly independent, although he has no arms, he nevertheless loves being cared for by his sister. Zineb, for her part, does not dare to face the new world that a marriage would constitute. Life passes punctuated by the same gestures. Zineb takes the bus to go to work at the date packaging factory. Moussa goes to see the schoolmaster, draws or dreams of Mériem, the woman he loves. A rose secretly grows in the sand, which Moussa waters every day.
Rose Of The Desert
A drama about immigration and the fight for survival, seen from the side of children: Mona, a catholic Ivorian little girl, and Said, a Muslim Algerian kid. Their initial hate will become a tender friendship showing the injustice in this world.
Matares
A woman trapped in her flat by Islamic demonstrators in 1991 recalls a parallel disillusionment when her 1950s dreams of independence ended in rape and the death of her closest friend.
Touchia
A young musician, Moussa, dreams of becoming the Michael Jackson of Algiers. All he has to offer is his talent and energy, taking his crazy dream on the road with his small band, initially playing at weddings then posh bars and nightclubs. He becomes Algier's new star, but he will soon come face to face with a barbaric, totalitarian form of Islam hijacked by new officials who want to ban him from singing.