Sid Ali Mazif
Directing
Biography
Sid Ali Mazif (سيد علي مزيف), is an Algerian director, born in 1943 in Algiers. After starting as an assistant on the set of Twenty Years in Algiers by Marc Sator, Sid Ali Mazif studied at the Ben Aknoun National Cinema Institute, near Algiers. As part of his training, he made his first short films between 1965 and 1966. He then joined the future ONCIC for which he shot documentaries such as La Cueillette des Oranges and Le Paludisme en Algérie (1967). He also collaborated on two important collective films of Algerian cinema: Hell at Ten Years (1968) on the experience of children during the war of liberation and Récits de la Révolution (1970). His first feature film, Black Sweat tells the story of the repression of a miners' strike during colonialism. Les Nomades (1975) addresses the delicate problem of the necessary sedentarization of tribes. Since Leila and the Others (1977), Sid Ali Mazif has campaigned, through his films, for the improvement of the condition of women in his country.
Known For
When their father dies, three nomadic sons choose different voices. The first part for the city, the second tries to live as its ancestors develop and the third integrates one of the new agricultural cooperations. "A pastoral society (1,500,000 inhabitants) on the threshold of decisive choices, destructured by the evolution of economic relations which lead to the concentration of herds in the hands of a few, to the support of rangelands and to the movement of impoverishment and proletarianization of the greatest number. The attitudes of the protagonists occur in relation to the economic and political involved in the process of agrarian revolution. The alternative lies only in the free adherence of small breeders to the forms of economic and social reorganization of the Agrarian Revolution and their insertion in the profound movements of social and political change that affect Algerian society." Sid Ali Mazif
The Nomads
The film recounts in three parts by three different directors the Algerian people's struggle for independence after 130 years of French colonization: Ahmed Bedjaoui "Les Fedayines," Rabah Laradji "La Bombe," Sid Ali Mazif "Le Messager."
Stories of the Revolution
During French colonization, a young Algerian boy is expelled from the French high school where he is able to study thanks to his father's position in the village. For his father, whose dream is to see his son climb the social ladder, this is a disaster, and the young man decides to go to work in the mines. A general strike that is severely repressed makes him aware of the class struggle, and he joins the resistance against discrimination and colonial oppression.
Black Sweat
The story of Algerian women trying to live in 1970s Algeria where the society is between conservative values and progressive modern Algeria.
Leila and the Others
Composed of three parts, this montage film addresses all aspects relating to the role of women in Algerian society: their ambitions, the role of the State and the help of organizations that were created during the struggle for female emancipation. .
I Exist
This film was considered a testing ground for young O.N.C.I.C. directors. Today there is no longer a copy and the negative was accidentally destroyed. The Algerian Cinematheque has a copy of the very beautiful part shot by Abderrahmane Bouguermouh "La Give": A young schoolgirl from Kabylia is tasked by the resistance fighters with transmitting a message which is hidden in a thrush...
Hell is Ten Years Old
Collectively made Algerian film.
So that Algeria May Live
In the city of Constantine, the thwarted love affair of two students: Houria, fatherless, from a poor and traditional background, and Noureddine, son of a wealthy family influenced by Western lifestyle. Houria's brothers keep a close eye on her and want to marry her off to a first cousin. The young woman runs away and, when she returns home, Noureddine courageously asks her to marry him. But while Houria's family agrees, this time it is the girl who refuses...