Screen/Society--Reel Women Directors of the Middle-East [Algeria]--"Rachida"

Film Screening: "Rachida" (Yamina Bachir-Chouikh, 2002, 100 min, Algeria & France, in French and Arabic w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD) / The first full-length feature film by Yamina Bachir evokes memories of the worst atrocities of the terror in Algeria. The young teacher Rachida is teaching at a school in Algiers, when she is stopped in the street by a group of youths who demand she take a bomb and place it in the school. She recognizes one of the terrorists and refuses. Then she is cold-bloodedly shot and left for dead. Miraculously, she survives. To recover, she hides with her mother in a village far from the city. But terrorism is unavoidable there too. There are no safe havens in Algeria. "Rachida" is a moving story about a community - and above all about the women in it - under the threat of terror. It's a world where you can be kidnapped, raped, shot, where an unmarried woman with a scar on her belly can't go to a bathhouse, because people might think she has had a Caesarean. / -- Winner of 8 Film Awards! / "Bachir-Chouikh stitches a story with few frills: there are brave women, cowardly men, the pervading beauty of nature and a climate of fear." - New York Times / Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmGVJiZdMjc