The powerful Their Algeria begins with footage filmed in 1992, of director Lina Soualem, then merely two years old, visiting her paternal grandparents' house in Thiers, central France, with her father, French actor Zinedine Soualem (her mother is acclaimed Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass). Cut to 2017, and Soualem is on Skype with her father on the other end of the video call, showing her around the empty apartment his parents used to live in. Then comes the heartbreaking revelation that after 62 years of marriage, the director's grandparents are separating.
Their Algeria, which won the inaugural Docs-in-Progress Award in Cannes last year, a €10,000 (Dh40,000) cash prize, is a documentary that details how the Soualem's grandparents cope with the split and their reminiscences about their marriage. The film is debuting at the 51st Visions du Reel festival this week.
The event, which usually takes place in Nyon, Switzerland, is happening virtually this year, amid the coronavirus pandemic. Swiss viewers will be able to access Soualem’s film online from Saturday, April 25, to Saturday, May 2.
“The difficult thing is that I heard about the separation while I was abroad,” Soualem says on the phone from her apartment in Paris. “When my grandparents separated, it was so sudden. No one was expecting it to happen.”
Initially, she only wanted to film her grandmother. It’s easy to see why when watching the documentary. Aicha Aidaoui Soualem lights up the screen, whether it’s the coy way in which she talks about her first encounter with Lina’s grandfather, Mabrouk Soualem, or her cooking food or describing how she and her husband had terrible levels of communication for decades. Remarkably, after their separation, the couple moved into, and still live in, apartments 30 metres apart from each other, and Aicha still cooks food for Mabrouk.
Filming was a revelatory experience for the director. “I had no idea that my grandparents had not met each other before they married,” she says, as it was an arranged marriage and the couple met for the first time on their wedding day. “I really loved it when she told me that their first encounter was like you see in the movies.”
But interviewing her grandmother wasn’t enough. Soualem realised she needed more voices in the film. “I couldn’t understand the story without understanding what my grandfather went through,” she says.
“Then I realised that something else was missing – the link between them and me, which is my own dad. So I decided to film him, too.”
The dynamic between the three protagonists is electrifying: “My grandmother and my father, they have this way of teasing each other, which I love,” says Soualem. “Then my grandfather and my dad have the same facial features, so little by little my dad took a more important place in the film.”
The daughter of the two famed actors rejected the film business for a long time. “I felt like I had a duty to do something more serious,” she says. “I studied history and political science, and did my master’s in international relations. I wanted to work in cultural diplomacy.”
However, things changed once she completed university. “I understood that I always wanted to be in cinema and the arts,” she says. “But I didn’t want to say so because both my parents were. Then I discovered documentary filmmaking. I started to programme for a human rights film festival in Argentina and saw that through documentary films, it’s possible to tackle social, political and historical issues. I could talk artistically about things that interest me.”
I realised I had no idea how my grandparents were involved in that political and historical context. I knew the region they were from, but I didn't know their social backgrounds, how they grew up, how they came to be in France
Soualem saw Their Algeria as an opportunity to talk about the relationship between France and Algeria. The film also incorporates archive footage from the 1940s and 1950s. Her grandparents left Algeria in the 1950s with the intention of returning when hostilities died down. However, by the time fighting lessened, their children were doing well at school, so returning to North Africa seemed like an upheaval.
A couple of years before they separated, I went to Algeria for the first time with my university,” says Soualem. “While there, I realised I had no idea how my grandparents were involved in that political and historical context. I knew the region they were from, but I didn’t know their social backgrounds, how they grew up, how they came to be in France.”
The documentary took on an added poignancy for the director earlier this year when her grandfather, who worked as a cutler, died. Their Algeria is dedicated to him. "It's weird," she says. "I'm happy he died before this pandemic. Otherwise, he would have been home alone, and we wouldn't have been able to take care of him. We could all be at his funeral and share this moment with my family because people who are dying now, it's difficult for the families."
Initially Soualem was reluctant to take part in a virtual world premiere, but her grandfather’s death encouraged her to ahead, as a way of celebrating his life. She knew there was no guarantee festivals would take place in the traditional way soon, and she didn’t want to wait.
Showing the documentary to her dad was the final task. “He was really touched because he sees his dad telling me things that they would never have been able to talk about.”
The 2020 Visions du Reel Film Festival is online from Friday, April 17 to Saturday, May 2
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD
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Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
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You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
List of alleged parties
May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members
May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party
Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson
Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party
Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters
Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
- Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
- Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
- Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
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'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
- Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
- Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
- Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
- Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
- 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
- Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
More on Coronavirus in France
