Film: Fidaï
by Damien Ounouri
Algeria/France/China/Qatar/Kuwait/Germany 2012
Documentary, 83 min, Arabic/French ENG ST
Discussant:
Nora Lafi (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient / Member of EUME)
Curator: Viola Shafik
This event is part of the Arabic film series “Beyond Spring”, organized by Mayadin Al-Tahrir e.V., EUME and the Werkstatt der Kulturen.
Synopsis:
El Hadi leads a simple life in the Algerian provinces. He is a family man and one of the countless anonymous veterans of Algeria’s war of independence. Not even his relatives know much about his past. In 1954 when the war began El Hadi was 14 years old. When he turned 20 he became a fidai and joined the FLN’s urban guerrilla in France where he executed two assassinations. 50 years later director Damine Ounouri joins his uncle El Hadi on a journey through time. Bit by bit he breaks his uncle’s silence.
Nora Lafi is a researcher at ZMO (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient), Berlin since 2006. She is a Historian of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on the study of cities of the Ottoman Empire between the classical age and the reforms of the 19th century, with a specific focus on the local forms of urban governance. Nora did her PhD at the Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France and a Master in Arabic Language and Literature (Aix-en-Provence University and Cairo University). She is also a Private Dozentin with the Freie Universität Berlin. She is a founding member of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME). In 2004/05 she was a Fellow of the predecessor of EUME, the Working Group Modernity and Islam (AKMI).