Taking place in Bab el-Oued, an impoverished neighbourhood in Algiers, the film follows Boualem, a young Algerian working in a French bakery. Simply desiring a quiet life, he finds himself living under a loudspeaker constantly blaring out angry sermons from the local mosque. Unable to stand the incessant admonitions, he tears down the loudspeaker and throws it into the sea, provoking the anger of a relentless mob. Set shortly after the country’s bloody riots of 1988, the film foretells the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria, which would ultimately lead to a vicious civil war for much of the later half of the 90s. The film won the International Critics’ Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

Algeria 1994/Dir Merzak Allouache.
With Nadia Kaci, Mohammed Ourdache, Hassan Abdou.
93 mins.