Holidays despite all
(DES VACANCES MALGRÉ TOUT)

Malek Bensmail
France 2001 | 68 Min. | BetaSP, OmeU

Kader, an immi­grant who has lived in the Paris area since 1957, is an elec­tri­cian. With his family - his wife, and his chil­dren aged around 30 – he decides to spend his summer hol­i­days in his vil­lage, not far from Algiers. His last visit dates back to 1998.The chil­dren have not been back for ten years or so. These few weeks, so eager­ly await­ed on both sides, are a spe­cial time that trig­gers many strong emo­tions. We watch them in their encoun­ters, as they are reunit­ed, their dif­fi­cul­ties, their visions of the coun­try and the region. The film tells us through little family sto­ries about Franco-Alger­ian his­to­ry and the rela­tions between those who decid­ed to leave Alge­ria and those who decid­ed to stay.