Directing
This movie portrays three women living in today's Algeria between modern society and Islamic fundamentalism, self-determination and dependence. Goucem, a young woman who works for a photographer and mistress of a rich doctor, her mother Papicha, a former cabaret star, and her best friend Fifi, a prostitute, all live in a hotel in the city center of Algiers. Their difficult personal situation and the growing influence of Islam lead to dramatic consequences...
In the civil war that tore apart Algeria in the 1990s, police chief Brahim Llob hunts down Islamist extremists on a daily basis. Having become the favorite target for them, it is with fear that he goes every morning to his office at the Central Commissariat of Algiers. Annoyed by the power in place, preparing to publish a whistle-blower book, Morituri, Llob is obliged to take early retirement.
Atop 17 flights of stairs, Madame Aldjeria rules over a crew of beautiful young women with the help of faithful son Riyad and clever lawyer Djaffar. Madame Aldjeria can set up a lonely old man with companionship or destroy the reputation of whomever the client wants humiliated. But when Riyad grows attracted to a beautiful new girl, Paloma, and a potentially huge new project runs into trouble, Aldjeria could lose everything she's worked for.
In Algeria, in 1991, amid the rise of fundamentalism, Ali, a family man, allows himself to be influenced by three extremists and drags his wife into a nightmare. For fundamentalists, "demons" can nestle within women, so they must be exorcised of this "diabolical" presence.
