Viva Algeria (Viva Laldjérie) (2004)

Set in Algiers, this thriller revolves around three women - a young woman who is the mistress of a rich doctor, a prostitute and a retired cabaret singer - who live in the same apartment complex. It puts a very different face on the country from what I expected. The music throughout the movie is also excellent.

Description: This is a story of old and young in Algeria told through a mother and daughter hiding out in a hotel from local terrorists. We follow pretty Goucem (Lubna Azabal), 27, through the urban landscape of modern-day Algiers as she attempts to assert her own version of a liberated lifestyle. She battles daily with the conflict of a new Algiers; pitting traditional life against the rapidly modernizing city. Goucem is contrasted by her more traditional mother, Papicha – played by Biyouna – who is an ex-singer longing for her cabaret and for an Algeria of days gone by. Fifi (Nadia Kaci), the women's neighbor at the hotel, adds more co This is a story of old and young in Algeria told through a mother and daughter hiding out in a hotel from local terrorists. We follow pretty Goucem (Lubna Azabal), 27, through the urban landscape of modern-day Algiers as she attempts to assert her own version of a liberated lifestyle. She battles daily with the conflict of a new Algiers; pitting traditional life against the rapidly modernizing city. Goucem is contrasted by her more traditional mother, Papicha – played by Biyouna – who is an ex-singer longing for her cabaret and for an Algeria of days gone by. Fifi (Nadia Kaci), the women's neighbor at the hotel, adds more color to this story as an energetic prostitute who keeps herself busy with wealthy men twenty- four hours a day. ... (more) (less)