Directed by Sammy Benammar

Logline: Mom, when you took me to the cemetery in Algeria, I thought I had to photograph the dead to bring them back from our colonial past.

Synopsis: Mom, you brought me back to our homeland. All I know about these harsh landscapes I learned from books written by the hand that burned these mountains. I try to undo the colonial myths engraved into my memory, but the hills escape my gaze. Do you think I, too, have become the white djinn spoken of by the legends surrounding our martyrs?

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 19 Minutes
GENRE: Documentary, Experimental
PRODUCTION FORMAT: Super 8mm
LANGUAGE: English, French
LOCATION: Quebec
TECHNIQUES: Live Action
KEYWORDS: Algeria, Colonization, Independence, Ruins, Memory, Culturally Diverse Filmmaker

Director's Statement: Avant Seriana is an essay film shot in Super 8 in the Aurès region of Algeria. Observing the landscapes of my native land, I realize that they are divided into several images and times. Two different countries are formed : the Algeria of the mountains and an imaginary one born of the tales I've read in colonial archives. My gaze no longer belongs to the places where I was hoping to return to my roots.