La fille de Keltoum

In Australia, the film's title is Bent Keltoum. In the contemporary world of Middle-Eastern fear and terrorism, things like class and sexism have taken a back-seat. In this film though, the main character, whilst leaving Belgium for Tunisia in her quest to find her birth mother and the truth behind her adoption, she finds herself struggling to cope in this foreign society. If the desolate and harsh mountains weren't enough to end her quest prematurely, she often encountered other surprising situations. Sexist lore, from her small isolated birth-village, neighboring towns, and even "Westernised" tourist meccas, constantly demean the value of women, as far as current Western values are concerned. The main character struggles with this concept throughout the film. True to "road trip" movies, her journey takes on unforeseeable twists, right to the end. This makes it entertaining, but also the whites of your eyes will show as you are surprised and disgusted with the sexist and cultural damnation of women in Tunisia - and I am a guy! This movie played late-night on television after midnight, but kept me glued to the very end, and I think you, especially if you are a young determined woman, will surely be too.

As part of First Run Features Global Film Initiative, "Daughter of Keltoum" is a worthy if far from perfect entry by Algerian film-maker Mehdi Charef, who has lived in France since the age of 10. It is an exploration of the class and gender oppression facing the Kabyle peoples, the Algerian branch of the Berber nationality that lives primarily in the mountainous region of the north.

It is focused on the relationship between Rallia (Cylia Malki), a 19 year old Kabyle who was adopted by Swiss parents as an infant, and her aunt Nedjma (Baya Belal). Rallia has returned to the village where she was born in search of her mother, who is now working as a hotel maid in a distant city. She is also in search of answers to the question of why her mother gave her up.

If Rallia does not understand why, the viewer certainly will. This is a land of grinding poverty, where women are treated as beast of burden. Nejma is in awe of Switzerland where water is readily available from a tap. In her village, she fills up plastic tanks from a remote well and trudges back several times a day. Nejma, who appears to have been driven half-mad by poverty, has very few pleasures in life other than a occasional visit from Rallia's mother, who brings candy and trinkets for the family. In a nearby abandoned religious shrine, Nejma has constructed her own altar out of empty cigarette packs and other colorful but worthless items found on the road beneath the village.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/06/10/daughter-of-keltoum/

BENT KELTOUM is movie storytelling at its most powerful. It overcame many flaws. There were unexplained irrational elements, the characters may not have spoken in regionally accurate dialect, and some of the violent and sexist action may have been overdone; however, the actors fully disappeared into their roles and relationships, and the plot moved forward blending incidents into a coherent and satisfying narrative. The characters Nejma and the Repudiated Woman were particularly interesting. The visuals authentically supported the narrative and illuminated the characters. Shooting this film on location can't have been easy, but the result is rewarding.

The last scene of the movie is where this old demented woman races to keep up with a bus. It tugs. It defines the movie. Its what stays. Most of the movie is in most ways preparing for the last 15 minutes. There's dust and mountains and old withered people. And there's this beautiful woman looking for her mother. The mountains were paradise in her dreams but she dislikes the reality she sees. There's anger from unknown unresolved past. The visual is compelling – desert life and wrinkled humanity. But again, it's the last scene – the spirited run, trying to keep up with the bus, madness, umbilical bonds, intensity of life, unconstrained emotion – that's what stays as the memory.

Riveting and moving, this is a culture clash road-movie with shades of both 'Thelma & Louise' and 'Rabbit Proof Fence'.

Rallia, a young North African brought up in Switzerland by adoptive parents, arrives in the country of her birth to find Keltoum, the woman she believes abandoned her as a baby.

In the mountainous desert where the bus driver drops her, she first encounters members of her family: a gentle old man, her grandfather, and a terrified woman who turns out to be her mother's sister. But Keltoum herself remains elusive. Working in a luxury hotel in the city, she supposedly visits every week.

Rallia begins to take part in her new-found family's life. Her initially circumspect aunt becomes a companion, and accompanying her on her water rounds is a revelation.

But Rallia waits in vain for her mother to arrive and, feeling betrayed by her family's lies, decides to leave and look for her. On impulse she encourages her aunt to join her, and the two set off on a trip full of danger, adventure and a rather steep learning curve.

Having grown up taking European wealth and freedom for granted, it comes as a shock to Rallia (and the 'Western' viewer) when she experiences life in the raw: highway robbery in aid of basic survival, childbirth on a rocky outcrop, a woman being abandoned by her husband on the roadside, male violence towards a girl wearing make-up. And when she finally confronts her mother, she is in for a deeply cathartic lesson in humility.

Yet there are also moments of great empowerment when her European self-confidence allows her to take the bull by the horns, so to say.



I found KELTOUM'S DAUGHTER full of fascinating insight into North African culture, custom and costume while being kept on the edge of my seat by a riveting adventure and moved by a tale of personal discovery. I thoroughly enjoyed it!