Malek Bensmaïl

French current affair show

Haroun is an old bachelor who has lived in Oran for several years. A retired civil servant, he leads a reclusive life until the day he meets Kamel in a bar—a journalist to whom he tells an incredible story dating back to 1942. He claims to be the brother of ‘the Arab’ killed in a story told in one of the most famous novels of the 20th century, ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus. An Arab with an erased name: Moussa. Through anger, assertions, details, and confidences, Haroun finally convinces the journalist to listen to his story. His confession is a cry of freedom and distress—but above all, a cry of revolt: against an abusive mother, against a country that failed to achieve true independence, against a book, and against a famous French writer.

The largest country in the Arab world and a producer of hydrocarbons, Algeria has everything it needs to weigh on the international scene. But Africa's second military power seems undermined by its internal problems. While the Bouteflika regime has fallen and the popular “hirak” movement has shown that the people are ready to enter a more democratic era, the country appears as a colossus with feet of clay, which has failed enhance their independence. How did this isolation come about? From the “dark decade” of terrorism to the fall of Bouteflika, via 9/11 or the Arab revolutions, this documentary sheds light on Algerian foreign policy in recent decades, while deciphering the strategy of Western powers towards it.

Immigrated to the Paris region since 1964, Kader decides to spend the summer holidays with his family in his native village, not far from Algiers. These few weeks, so eagerly awaited by both sides, constitute a special moment full of strong emotions. The camera follows the family in their meetings, their reunions, their difficulties, their visions of the country and its region, the celebrations, the weddings, their return to France… This film raises many questions. Within this family itself, between those who stayed in the country and those who emigrated to France, how do we perceive the situation in Algeria? What hopes do each of them have for their country? What about the Franco-Algerian relationship? Contemporary immigration? The desire for exile of Algerians today? Different discourses on both sides of the Mediterranean? The desires of each of them…

This docu­men­tary traces the spring of 2004, the Abde­la­ziz Boute­flika re-elec­tion as President of the Alge­rian Repu­blic in the first round of elec­tions. Follo­wing the step between the time the former Prime Minis­ter Ali Benflis.

Documentary series in two parts: 1. A people without a voice (80'), 2. A land in mourning (78'). Part 1: A people without a voice: October 88, the Algerian Republic is faltering, the film goes back to the sources of this tragedy and explains how the face to face between the Islamists and those in power began. The interruption of the legislative elections of December 91, followed shortly after the assassination of President Boudiaf in June 92, plunged Algeria into chaos. Part 2: A land in mourning: the cycle of violence that leads to massacres and the economic and geopolitical underside of the war. More than 100,000 deaths, an incredible degree of barbarity, massacres, apparently incomprehensible... Behind the official window of power and its artificial political scene, hides a shadow power.

Face to the firing squad a dictator is awaiting death. As the soldiers shoulder their rifles, the man remembers. He recalls with wicked jubilation his devouring ambition, his complete absence of scruples, his brutal lack of humanity, his taste for manipulation, the cowardice of his entourage, his ambiguous relationships with a woman named Dêmokratia.

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The Battle of Algiers is one of the most critically celebrated films of all time. Made in 1966 it documented Algeria's war for independence. Returning to the roots of the production and the personalities involved, this documentary explores what made The Battle of Algiers so profound and also some of the controversies.

A chronicle of the everyday life in Constantine's psychiatric hospital.

On November 1, 1954, near Ghassira, a small village lost in the Aurès, a couple of French teachers and an Algerian boss were the first civilian victims of a seven-year war which would lead to the independence of Algeria. More than fifty years later, Malek Bensmaïl returns to this Chaoui village, which has become “the cradle of the Algerian revolution”, to film, throughout the seasons, its inhabitants, its school and its children.

A journey through Algerian music, past and present, alongside a political look at Algerian society today. This documentary shows how music and musicians representing Afro-Maghrebian new tendancies, contributes to the blending and the fusion of Maghrebian and African cultures, as well as of the European and Western one. It tells about exile, about artist's feelings, about today Algeria. It shows how Maghrebian living in France express their musical culture, their roots, their traditions, mixing them up with the other cultures they meets.

Based on Alge­rian proverbs and sayings, Terri­to­rie(s) reviews Alge­rian history in this century. The french colo­ni­sa­tion, the paci­fi­ca­tion of 1957 and the ulti­mate inde­pen­dence in 1962. The poli­ti­cal leaders are consi­de­red in cleverly edited sequences: Boudiaf, Ben Bella, Colo­nel Boume­dienne and figures from the Isla­mic move­ment like Ali Belhadj and Fara­khan. The french and Alge­rian intel­le­gen­tias are also inclu­ded in this kalei­do­sco­pic image of a coun­try that thanks to its event­ful colo­nial past, still has diffi­cul­ties deter­mi­ning its own iden­tity more than thirty years after its inde­pen­dence. Barba­rism is all its forms, inclu­ding the mili­tary forms it can assume with follo­wers of the FIS, is set against the domes­tic warning of those who plead for keeping eyes open, and keeping society open.

Accommodated since Algeria's Bloody Decade of the 1990’s in the "House of the Press", the journalists of the famous daily newspaper El Watan await the completion of their new offices, a symbol of their independence. My camera is embedded in their newsroom as they follow the events of this new Algerian spring... President Bouteflika has set his sights on a 4th term. Beyond what we call the Arab revolutions and other mediatized terms, I wanted this film to serve as a memorial to the women and men, young and less young, who battle daily to safeguard the freedom of information in a politically and socially fossilized country.