Barbès, Little Algeria: masterful Sofiane Zermani (review)

A delicate portrait of this often caricatured Parisian neighborhood and the Algerian community that lives there. A first feature brimming with humanity.

Press officer for years, a transmission link between those who make films and journalists, Hassan Guerrar goes to the other side of the mirror and signs his very first production by heading to the Parisian district of Barbès in which his character principal, a single forty-year-old, moves in and welcomes his nephew who has recently arrived from Algeria. The starting point for a delicate chronicle, a portrait of the Algerian community which lives and brings to life this place in the north of the capital. Because he knows his subject like the back of his hand, Guerrar tells it with an eye overflowing with love but never fooled. Result: on screen, each scene makes us discover a Barbès that we have never seen on screen, like a village hidden from the eyes of those who do not know how to look.

Inside this village, the greatest of fraternities and the most trivial of violence coexist. With colorful characters, Barbès, Little Algeria constantly evolves between these extremes, throughout a story rich in twists and turns, carried out with a real talent as a storyteller, capable of bringing to life an enormous number of sub-plots without ever damaging its spine. At Guerrar, emotion is written with a capital E. She is the driving force behind a film which dialogues with the recent Drop of Gold. Even the power and finesse of its main actor: Karim Leklou at Cogitore, Sofiane Zermani at Guerrar’s. More and more present on the big screen (Before the flames go out, The Silver Venus…), he takes a new step here.

By Hassan Guerrar. With Sofiane Zermani, Eye Haïdara, Khalil Gharbia… Duration 1h33. Released October 16, 2024