A triple bill bringing together three remarkable feminist films from North Africa – the contemporary sci-fi feature Animalia and two short films from Algeria, which explore the role of women in the Algerian War of Liberation 1954-62. All three films encapsulate feminist ways of seeing, asking us to reflect upon women’s resistance in the face of colonial and post-colonialism oppression. 

IF THEY COULD HAVE (15)
Dir: Sarah El-Hamed. France, Algeria, UK 2024. 5 mins.  
An exploration of colonial trauma among women in the former French colonies.  

BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND SIX IN THE MORNING (15)
Dir: Nadja Makhlouf, Algeria, UK 2024. 4 mins.
In 1961, six inmates escaped from the women’s prison in central Paris where large numbers of Algerian women fighters were being held.  This film unearths the female voices of a resistance movement that unfolded on mainland France amongst Algerian migrants. 

ANIMALIA (18)
Dir: Sofia Alaoui, France, Morocco, Qatar 2023. 90 mins. 
Itto, a young woman from a modest rural background, is slowly adapting to the Moroccan privileged codes of her husband’s family. But when supernatural events put the country in a state of emergency, Itto is separated from her new family. Alone, pregnant and looking for her way back, she finds emancipation. 

The films by Nadja Makhlouf and Sarah El-Hamed have been specially commissioned by the Sussex University Resistance Network and CINECITY to mark the seventieth anniversary of the Algerian War of Liberation. 

The event will include a roundtable discussion with Sarah El-Hamed and Nadja Makhlouf and a DJ playing North African music in the ACCA bar. 

Curated by Martin Evans, Professor of Modern History, University of Sussex.