Viva Laldjerie (11 cents)

We have subscribed to a short series of Sunday afternoon films at the Smithsonian's Ripley Center. The first was a 2004 film, Viva Laldjerie, set in Algiers, and made by a French-born Algerian-by-ancestry filmmaker. The film has received mixed reviews, but we found it very interesting and worthwhile.

Basically, it centers around three women: a former cabaret dancer/singer, her 27 year old daughter, and a prostitute. They live in a down and out residential hotel in Algiers. The daughter is the main character; she has had a 3 year relationship with a married physician, she picks up men here and there for one night stands, she works in a photo shop, she goes to clubs, but she dresses modestly on the street. Her mother's world was shattered when her husband died "of disgust" and Islamic fundamentalists took control (social, one assumes) of the town in which they lived. The prostitute is also a mentor to our heroine (not in prostitution but in accommodating to the world around them).

Algiers comes across as a city without personality. On purpose, one assumes. Is it a western, modern city? Maybe. Is it controlled by Islamic forces? Perhaps.

In fact, neither description would appear accurate. The city, without a personality, without a clear identity, does not appear to know how to describe itself. There are western commercial forces (viz., the traffic and the camera shop), and there Islamic forces (viz., the female dress).

Go back to the women. They are caught in the middle. If Algiers was a truly Islamicist city, they could not lead the double lives (public and private) that they lead; society would not allow it. If Algiers were a truly western city, they would not lead the double lives that they lead; there would be no necessity. But Algiers is neither one, nor the other.

And while you get the feeling that this state of non-identity cannot be permanent, you also get the feeling that, whatever happens to Algeria, it will not be for the better.

The film has been shown in Algeria, which is also interesting. Although the more explicit sexual scenes and scenes of female nudity were cut out, not surprisingly.