The Outlandish
Fall Grants 2021 - Post-Production Stage
Tahar Kessi / Feature Experimental or Essay / France, Algeria, Qatar / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic, Berber, French / Interests: Docufiction
Synopsis
We cross Algeria’s history through three main characters: nowadays with Boubkeur (The Wanderer), a solitary and silent traveller; in 1996 with Bhar (The Archivist) investigating a sprawling network of traffic and influences directed by a mysterious man named SK and an indefinite time and space with Djamil (The Shadow). All three, in constant movement, seem to be looking for something. During their journeys, we come across activists, demonstrators, hunters, archives of political struggles, women weavers, and poets. The archivist’s investigation gets complicated. The Wanderer gets lost in the woods, and the mirages intensify. Where will all this lead us? No one knows. In a gigantic lark mirror, we witness the hopes, journeys, joys and illusions of people wandering in a constantly changing Algeria. Those women and men are torn between deployed laughter and barely feigned tears as they are coming out of more than 15 years of civil war, a period when chimaera was documenting reality.
Credits
- Director
- Tahar Kessi
- Screenwriter
- Tahar Kessi
- Producer
- Soukaina Sentissi (Les Ménines), Amir Bensaïfi (BHA Productions)
- Production Company
- Les Ménines
About the Director
After studying science in Algeria, then literature and cinema at the Fémis, Tahar Kessi worked as a director of photography, editor, actor, and framer on several film projects. He has collaborated with Rabah Ameur Zaimeche, Tariq Téguia, and Habiba Djahnine. Tahar has several films and film experiences to his credit. He has been working on this film 'La Vache et le Pénalty (The Outlandish)' for ten years now without interruption.