Their Algeria
Director: Lina Soualem
Documentary – 2020 – 72 minutes – General Audience – Jordanian Premiere
France, Switzerland, Qatar, Algeria
Language: French and Arabic – subtitled in English and Arabic
Screenplay: Lina Soualem
Cinematography: Lina Soualem
Editing: Gladys Joujou
Producers: Marie Balducchi
Awards: Prix étudiant de la première œuvre CCU Crous – CineMed 2020; Prize for the Best Arabic Documentary – El Gouna Film Festival 2020
Synopsis:
After 62 years of living together, Lina’s grandparents, Aïcha and Mabrouk, have decided to separate. Together, they came from Algeria to Thiers, a small medieval town in the middle of France, over 60 years ago. Side by side, they have experienced this chaotic immigrant life. For Lina, their separation is an opportunity to question their long journey of exile and their silence.

Director’s Biography:
Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress, born and based in Paris. After graduating La Sorbonne, she worked in journalism and film festival programming, combining her interests for cinema and the study of contemporary Arab societies. Soualem‘s debut feature documentary “Their Algeria” (2019) received the Best Doc-in-progress award at the Doc Corner at Cannes. “Their Algeria” was selected to premiere in Visions du Réel 2020. Soualem recently acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Rayhana. She is currently developing her second feature documentary and works as an author and assistant director on many projects.