Director: Mounia Meddour
Script: Mounia Meddour, Fadette Drouard
Photography: Léo Lefevre
Editor: Damien Keyeux
Music: ROB
Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda, Zahra Doumandji, Yasin Houicha, Nadia Kaci, Meryem Medjkane
Production: The Ink Connection, High Sea Production & Tayda Film
Distribution: Teodora Film
Country: France, Algeria
Year: 2019
Length: 105’
Algeria, 1990s. Nedjma, an 18 year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War to keep her from experiencing a normal life and going out at night with her friend Wassila. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to fight for her freedom and independence by putting up a fashion show.
Mounia Meddour was born and raised in Algeria. At the age of 18, she moved to France with her family as a result of death threats they received during the Algerian Civil War. Mounia studied Journalism and Film in Paris, where she also joined the summer directing programme at La Fémis. She has directed five documentaries. Her first short film, Edwige (2011), won the Ciné+ Award at the Saint-Jean- de-Luz Festival, the UniFrance Short Film Award, and the Grand Jury Award at the Festival du Premier Court- Métrage de Pontault-Combault. In 2012, the film was selected for the Dubai International Film Festival, the Gulf Film Festival and the Festival de Cannes. Her current project, Papicha, received development funding from the Centre national du cinema et de l’image animée (CNC) as well as the Sopadin Screenwriting Award.