Powerpoint for Bab el Oued City

1. BAB EL OUED
CITY
Merzak Allouache
1994

2. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. This film seems to engage, in many ways, Julien
Duvivier’s Pepe le Moko. What thematic, narrative, or visual
similarities exist between the two films? What is the
function of this filmic intertext, in your opinion, particularly
as we have moved from the colonial to the postcolonial
context?
2. One of the themes of this film (beyond the issue of
entrapment) is the theme of blocked or incomplete
communication. How does this manifest in the film? What
is the function of this trope or theme? How does it relate to
the central messages of the film?
3. Like earlier films we have seen (particularly A Summer in
La Goulette) this film argues that Islamism is imported into
North Africa from elsewhere. How is the argument made in
the film? From where, according to the film, does Islamism
come? How does this theme of Islamism relate to the other
themes and messages of the film?

3. CONTEXT
A look at the causes and effects of Algeria’s Civil War
Contains direct and indirect references to government,
Islamist rebels, real historical events
Allouache filmed in secret, gave script to actors day by
day to prevent seizure of project by Islamists
Film was interrupted by the death of his friend, journalist
Tahar Djaout (killed by Islamist rebels)
Film is pessimistic, suggesting exile as only real viable
option, and even that is imperfect (we don’t know where
Boualem actually goes)

4. SETTING

5. HISTORICAL SETTING
Algiers, 1989, in the year following anti-government riots 3
years prior to official start of Algerian Civil War
Bab El Oued, old colonial part of Algiers
Working Class Neighborhood
Homes (main characters are neighbors)
Beach (boundary between Algeria and elsewhere / France)
Cemetary
Bakery
Mosque
Boat

6. ALGERIA: AFTER
INDEPENDENCE

7. ALGERIA AS GRAVEYARD

8. FAILURES AND BLOCKS OF
COMMUNICATION

9. FROM PRISON TO TOMB
Film explores failures of independence through a play
with film noir (although we are primarily in the day
suggesting darkness pervades)
Although it regards colonial Algeria as problematic, it
seems contemporary Algeria as worse (particularly for
women—Yamina is locked in and Ourdia lives a “living
death”)
France is postulated as a possible escape, but it too is a
trap (as evidence by Messaoud’s explusion)
Intertextual play with Duvivier’s Pepe le Moko reproduces
and expands themes of entrapment and death

10. CORRUPTION AND
DECEPTION

11. COMINGS AND GOINGS

12. CRISIS OF MASCULINITY AND
SOCIAL ORDER (FILM NOIR)
Algeria is depicted as governed (by force and subterfuge)
by competing patriarchal forces
Women are (as the film shows) increasingly voiceless and
powerless
People survive through escapism (books, movies) and
fantasy (Paulo and his Aunt)
Authority is maintained not only through force but
through illusion and subterfuge—nothing is as it seems
(we are through the looking glass)
Motif of repetition (and references to Pepe le Moko)
suggest Algeria is condemned to repeat the cycle of
violence and oppression

13. CIRCULARITY AND
ENTRAPMENT

14. IMPOSSIBILITY OF
REVOLUTION
Boualem’s revolutionary act is futile, a death sentence
Multiple references to failed revolution, to revolution as a
sort of manipulation or betrayal
Shadowy figures work behind the scenes to manipulate
all action
No character (apart from shadowy figure) has any sort of
real control or agency
All forms of expression apart from propaganda are shut
off, cut off, suppressed (including music, art)

15. DEATH OF ORDINARY
LIFE

16. THEMES
Failures of Independence
Blocked Communication / Algeria Cut Off
“Government” and “Revolution” as tools of patriarchal thugs
vying for dominance
Algeria as living tomb where escape (but to where) is only
possible option
Place of Women in Modern, Arab World
Corruption of Ruling Elites and Revolutionary Movements
Play with Film Noir (Pepe le Moko)
Continued (but problematic) relationship between France
and Algeria