20° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Feature Film Competition 2002

Bent Keltoum

La fille de Keltoum
by Mehdi Charef
Country: France, Belgium, Tunisia
Year: 2001
Duration: 96'


Rallia, a young woman of Algerian origin, is returning to the desert in northern Africa in search of her mother, Keltoum, who abandoned her when she was small. All she knows is that the woman works in a hotel in a big city. She is accompanied by her grandfather and a half-crazy aunt, Nedjma. Rallia undertakes a long and tiring journey which will make her confront intolerance, violence and poverty. The truth she so longs to find will be devastating.

"I want to go back there, but why? Simply to go back, or to shoot a film? My profession has conditioned me to confuse reality with fiction: I'm losing my way. I want to return to this rocky mountain like an exile, for the last time. I don't belong there any more; the link was broken when I discovered that death demands no special place. I am returning like a lover saying farewell to the woman who has rejected him" (M. Charef).

Biography

film director

Mehdi Charef

Mehdi Charef (Algeria, 1951) has been living for the past twenty years in France, where he has directed numerous full-length films which have received public and critical praise. His first film, Le thé au harem d'Archiméde (1985), won the Jean Vigo prize, a César as best first film and a recognition at Cannes. In 1992, his film Au pays des Juliets was a candidate for the Golden Palm at Cannes and won a special mention by the ecumenical jury. Bent Keltoum is his eighth film.

FILMOGRAFIA

Le thé au harem d'Archiméde (1985), Miss Mona (1987), Camomille ( 1988), Au pays des Juliets (1992), Pigeon volÈ (TV, 1996), La maison d'Alexina (TV, 1999), Marie-Line (2000), Bent Keltoum (2001).

Cast

& Credits

Regia, soggetto e sceneggiatura: Mehdi Charef.
Director of photography: Alain Levent.
Music: Bernardo Sandoval.
Art director: Taoufik Behi.
Costume designer: MaÔka GuÈzel.
Editor: Kenout Peltier.
Sound: Ricardo Castro, Henri Morelle.
Cast and characters: Cylia Malki (Rallia), Baya Belal (Nedjma), Jean-Roger Milo (Djibril), Fatima Ben Saodane (la donna ripudiata), Deborah Lamy (Kaltoum), Brahim Ben Salah (il nonno).
Produttori: Fabienne Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Pierre Fayer per CinétevÈ, 4 quai des CÈlestins, 75004 Paris, France, tel. +33-1-48043000, fax +33-1-48047038, e-mail cineteve@cineteve.fr.
Co-production:Canal +/CNC/France 2 Cinéma/Arte France Cinéma/To Do Today/CinétÈlÈfilms/RTBF/Studiocanal.
Vendita all'estero: Wild Bunch, 47 rue Dumont d'Urville, 75116 Paris, France, tel. + fax +33-1-71761124, e-mail tkhazrai@studiocanal.com.
Menu