Cinema
Woman as the Devil
Le Démon au féminin
Hafsa Zinaï-Koudil · 1994
Synopsis
In 1991, in an Algeria where fundamentalism is rising, Ali, a father of a family, lets himself be influenced by three extremists and becomes convinced that his wife is possessed by a demon. He consents to her being exorcised through violence, and drags his wife into a nightmare. The film follows this woman's ordeal and, through her, the silent struggle of Algerian women against religious and social violence.
Context
The screenplay takes up the true story of Latifa, a woman from Algiers who refused the veil and whom fundamentalists, at her husband's request, tortured for six hours in 1991, leaving her in a wheelchair. The film was shot between September 1992 and March 1993, mostly on 16 millimetre, for Algerian television, and the director received threats during the shoot. The authorities refused its national broadcast. Shown in France at Amiens and at the Rencontres des premiers films, then at Fespaco and in Geneva in 1995, it circulates mainly in festivals.
Who it is for
A fiction feature film, harrowing for the violence it shows. It helps to know that it was shot in haste, with television resources, just as threats were multiplying.
Prizes and reception
Audience Award at the Amiens International Film Festival in 1994, shared; banned from distribution in Algeria.