Bab El Oued City

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.

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.