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One ordinary night in a working-class neighborhood of the Algerian capital, a suspicious car drives along a street where several children play carelessly. The driver lures a young girl to the window and violently pulls her inside before driving away as the girl’s brother looks on in despair. The unsettling incident, inspired by real events, ignites the occasionally tense, if mostly dramatically inert social thriller “Algiers,” the country’s Oscar international feature submission, from writer-director Chakib Taleb-Bendiab.

Tensions are already running high in this town due to water shortages (as a radio announcement informs), and the knowledge that a predator is roaming around adds fuel to the fire with irate local men trying to find the culprit on their own. The official investigation faces its own obstacles, as inspector Sami Sadoudi (Nabil Asli) clashes with Dr. Dounia Assam (Meriem Medjkane), a psychiatrist who specializes in post-traumatic disorders. Their disparate...

Montreal-based distributor K-Films Amérique has acquired Canadian rights to Algerian multi-hyphenate Chakib Taleb Bendiab’s upcoming thriller “Algiers” that delves into the local phenomenon of child abduction.

“Algiers,” which will go by the title “196 métres” in France, is set to have its theatrical release in movie theatres in Québec in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a statement.

K-Films Amérique is an indie distributor which services the Canadian province of Quebec where French is the official language.

The Canada deal for “Algiers” was negotiated at the Cannes Marché du Film by the film’s Canadian executive producer Patricia Chica of Flirt Films and K-Films Amérique Louis Dussault.

As previously announced, “Algiers,” which is now in post, will be distributed theatrically throughout the Arab world by Cairo-based Mad Distribution. Mad World is handling world sales rights on “Algiers” outside Canada.

In “Algiers” the kidnapping of a young girl creates tension and suspicion in the Algerian capital.

Pan-Arab distributor Mad Solutions has acquired world rights to Algerian multi-hyphenate Chakib Taleb Bendiab’s upcoming thriller “Algiers” that delves into the local phenomenon of child abduction.

The film is set against the backdrop of collective scars left by the country’s 1992-2002 civil war, known as the Black Decade.

“Algiers” is the first feature by Bendiab, a writer/director and composer whose short “Black Spirits” – an African Samurai tale set in the Tunisian Sahara performed by French and Japanese actors – made a splash on the fest circuit.

In “Algiers” the kidnapping of a young girl creates tension and suspicion in the Algerian capital. Only Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist, and Sami, a police inspector, can unearth the demons of the past,” reads the film’s official synopsis.

“Algiers,” which is now in post, will be distributed theatrically throughout the Arab world via Mad Distribution, while Mad World, the company’s newly established international sales arm,...

De nos frères blessés

Seven years after his lauded 2013 debut Vandal, Hélier Cisterne (an actor we caught in John Shank’s Last Winter) returns with De nos frères blesses (Of Our Injured Brothers), produced by Justin Taurand. Cisterne nabs Vicky Krieps and Vincent Lacoste in the leads, with support from Hassen Ferhani (the documentary director making his acting debut) and Meriem Medjkrane. Hichame Alaouie serves as Dp. Cisterne’s 2013 debut Vandal won the Louis-Delluc Award for Best Debut Film in 2013.

Gist: Based on a novel by Joseph Andras, the script is co-written by director Katell Quillevere, Ferand is arrested in a 1956 Algiers factory for planting a bomb while his wife refuses to abandon him.…...