Brazilian filmmaker with Arab origins Karim Aïnouz Demonstrations in Algeria for ousting Bouteflika and avoiding his fifth term as president (his last two were alegedly kept by electoral fraud). Karim Aïnouz presents beautiful footage, incredibly shot only with a smartphone in a single day, and follows one activist in particular. Nardjes is actually a good choice: she is charismatic, communicative, daugter and granddaughter of people who died or have been in jail fighting for the country independence. Indeed, the documentary is partially based in her very view of the whole situation, as the scenes go where she is and a great part of the explanations about what was going on were given by her. Off course who controls the camera also presents his own point of view, emphasizing elements she had no control, such as the stong religious cultural behaviour, the presence of a man with Down syndrome among the multiple activists, two men firting with Nadjes (only the first of them being gentle), and some curious writings in the signs, either against the opinion of foreigners or saying that the prostesters were white, red and green (!) blood cells. Considering both her analysis, what activists cried or their testimonies as interviewees, and what images showed, it is clear that while there were elder people in the crowd (and one of them mentioned French oppression and the struggle against it), it was mostly a demonstration of a youth without prior political experience. Football support aesthetics and an atmosphere of party overcame the references to past struggle against colonial rule. It is related both to the wish of generational renewal in politics by very young activists and the understanding that the authoritarian militarized regime had its origins in people who were initially heroes of independence. The fear of violent repressions existed, and they happened elsewhere, but nothing more serious has been captured by the film.
