EXCLUSIVE: Algerian filmmaker Yanis Koussim debuts his first feature, Roqia, a horror based on the bloody history of 1990s Algeria, this week in Venice. Check out the film’s first teaser above.
The film’s synopsis reads: In 1993, after a car crash leaves Ahmed amnesiac, he returns to his village, where nothing feels familiar—not his wife, not his children. His youngest, frightened by Ahmed’s bandaged face, fears him deeply. Each night, strange visitors whisper litanies in an unknown tongue. Who are they? And why does his so-called friend, the neighbour, make him feel so uneasy?
In the present, an ageing Raqi battles Alzheimer’s. As possessed people speak in foreign tongues and violence rises, Ahmed fears regaining memory, while the disciple fears his master’s decline may unleash an ancient evil.
Koussim directs from a screenplay he wrote. The cast includes Ali Namous, Akram Djeghim, Mostefa Djadjam, Hanaa Mansour, and Lydia Hanni. Farès Ladjimi (Supernova Films) produced the film, which is a France, Algeria, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia co-production. Alpha Violet is handling sales.
Koussim studied at La Fémis. He has directed several short films, including Khouya, which nabbed awards at Locarno, Amiens, and was part of the Official Selection at Clermont-Ferrand. He later contributed to the documentary A Summer in Algiers: the Night, which premiered at the Palais de Tokyo, and co-wrote the screenplays of I Still Hide to Smoke by R. Obermayer as well as El Zahia, the next feature by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri. He is the founder of Plateau19, a collective of filmmakers advocating for independent cinema in Algeria.
Check out the teaser above.
