In Mansourah, You Separated Us

A Mansourah, tu nous as séparés

  • Dorothee Myriam Kellou
  • Algeria, France
  • 2019
  • 71 min
  • Dutch Premiere
  • Best of Fests, Focus: It Still Hurts

For the first time since the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), Malek, the father of director Dorothée Myriam Kellou, returns to Mansourah, the village where he was born. During the war, the French Army forcibly transported more than two million Algerians to resettlement camps. Back in his childhood home, Malek and his daughter try to imagine what exactly happened, and why most people have remained silent about it for all these years. Few know about the destruction of the villages, yet the consequences for the rural people were huge.

We hear how during the war, in their fight against the Algerian National Liberation Front, the French Army set up a camp in Malek’s village. A witness looks back in horror at the truck in which he was transported as a boy to an unknown destination. According to an elderly man, the consequences of the forced resettlement are palpable to this day. We also hear from a traumatized man responsible for multiple murders. Their testimonies shed light on an appalling and neglected history.

Credits

  • 71 min
  • color
  • DCP
  • Spoken languages: Arabic, French
  • Subtitles in: English (Closed Captioned)
Director
Dorothee Myriam Kellou
Production
Mariem Hamidat for HKE production, Eugénie Michel-Villette for Les Films du Bilboquet
Co-production
Sonntag Pictures
Cinematography
Hassen Ferhani
Editing
Mélanie Braux

IDFA history

2019
Dutch Premiere
Best of Fests
Focus: It Still Hurts

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IDFA history

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