Bab El Oued City

A searing film about the growing tension between secular and fundamentalist Algerians that would plunge Algeria into a blood bath soon after this movie was made.

The tendency of an oppressed society to self-mutilation is made painfully palpable: nobody is happy and nobody CAN be happy; nobody can enjoy even what they love; only hatred and despair are left. And the longing, somehow, to escape.

All the participants act as though their lives depended on it: especially unforgettable is the strikingly beautiful Hassan Abdou (listed as Abidou by IMDb) whose unique face seems to embody all the happiness that could be, but isn't.

Interesting and informative, if not deeply emotionally gripping. A portrait of the rise of local thuggish Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria, and their conflict with a moderate baker who steals their blaring speaker so he can sleep.

With a few exceptions the characters aren't very deep and are confined to archetypes, although the ending twist is interesting. That said, this grew on me a bit on a 2nd viewing. While the acting still often seemed amateurish, there was more emotion, and more a sense of a film with historical import; an attempt to capture and understand a moment in time when everything in a society is changing.