El’Sardines
Spring Grants 2024 - Production Stage
Zoulikha Tahar / Web Series / France, Algeria, Qatar / 10 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Fiction
Synopsis
Zouzou is a marine bioengineer living in Trouville, a seaside city near Oran. She is conducting crucial research into the disappearance of sardines in Algeria. Like many single Algerian women, she still lives with her parents, who believe she can only leave their house for her husband’s home. Zouzou is the only single and virgin woman in her family, under immense pressure. For months, she has secretly prepared for her first departure abroad. She will leave on a boat with a team of international researchers to follow the course of the sardines and uncover why they have disappeared from the Algerian coast. Zouzou must fly to Marseille the day after her younger sister Inès’s wedding to board the ship, which will tour the Mediterranean Sea, cross the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean to South Africa. Zouzou had planned this expedition with her colleague and best friend, Warda. However, Warda couldn’t obtain her visa, leaving Zouzou to face her clumsiness and lies alone, testing her bonds with her family and her only friend. Naima, Zouzou’s mother, obsessively reminds her of her single status. As a professional legal expert, she comments on her daughter’s every move. Her father, Hakim, a professional fishmonger, is greatly impacted by the sardine disappearance and is convinced it’s due to extreme heat and drought. Inès is focused on her wedding and upcoming move to Algiers, unaware of Zouzou’s secret plans. At home, Zouzou struggles to assert herself, often retreating into daydreams manifested as cartoons, which act as a shield against her oppressive reality. Meeting Nadia, a psychologist turned hairdresser known for her advice and perms, shakes Zouzou and forces her to confront her family and anxieties. In Nadia’s salon, Zouzou meets other women who struggle to assert their truth, inspiring her to find the courage to face herself. Zouzou’s days are short due to a curfew requiring her to return home before sunset. Following Nadia’s advice, Zouzou begins filming people in the street, asking questions that obsess her and prevent her from being herself, continuing this work up to the family home. Will Zouzou be able to tell her family about her departure and the real reasons behind it? The worst would be to reveal it on the wedding day…
Credits
- Director
- Zoulikha Tahar
- Screenwriter
- Zoulikha Tahar, Kaouther Adim
- Producer
- Claire Leproust Maroko, Yacine Medkour, Hugo Legrand-Nathan
- Production Company
- Fablab Channel
About the Director
Born in Oran, Algeria, Zoulikha Tahar pursued a PhD in mechanics of materials. Passionate about writing and photography, she first made a name for herself on social media with poem-videos under the pseudonym "Toute Fine." In 2017, she co-founded the AWAL slam collective, with whom she made 'La Rue,' a clip against street harassment in Algeria. She also published 'Presque Deux' the same year, a collection of poems committed to women's rights in the country. In 2018, Zoulikha left Algeria and ended her engineering career to pursue her growing passion for cinema. She moved to Paris to attend a documentary training program at La Fémis, where she made her first short film, 'Une Vie d'Essais,' which was selected for the Panorama of Cinemas of the Maghreb and the Middle East Festival. In 2021, she directed 'Kol Youm,' which won the Audience Award and the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Franco-Arab Film Festival in Noisy-le-Sec. A mix of real-world footage, screenshots, and slam, 'Kol Youm' is a film in which the director talks to her mother about the mental load. Zoulikha is currently working on her first fiction projects: 'La Buée,' a short film that won the Plan Libre – Orléans residency, the Regards de Femmes, and the Short Form Station workshops at the Berlinale Talents; 'El'Sardines,' a hybrid web series about the difficulty Algerian women experience in living their truth to the fullest; and 'Une Fenêtre pour Fifi,' a feature film that won the Casell'arte residency and the Groupe Ouest Puissance et Âme #2 workshop.