Papicha

Director Mounia Meddour has chosen her own youth in the Algerie of the 90s as the scene for her debut feature Papicha, which premiered in Cannes in 2019. A violent civil war is raging, and several terrorist groups are taking over the country in the mission of establishing an Islamic state – making it hard not to make connections to the Islamic State’s presence in the region during the past years.

Eighteen year old Nedjama, also called Papicha, and her friends at a boarding school in the capital Algiers, find themselves in the middle of the unrest. Nedjama, brilliantly portrayed by Lyna Khoudri, dreams of being a fashion designer. She spends all her time designing clothes to herself and her friends. At night they dance in secret clubs, but their freedom is threatened by a social and political climate that is becoming more and more authoritative. With the religious radicalism follows rules and prohibitions the girls at the boarding school try to protest, and in the fight for their own freedom they choose to arrange a fashion show as a way of showing their resistance – leading to catastrophe for the ones involved.

Mounia Meddour (b. 1978) is born in Moscow, Russia, and has grown up in Algeria. She moved to France with her family after receiving death threats under the Algerian civil war. Before making films, she studied journalism. She has made the short film Edwige (2011), which was shown at several international film festivals. Papicha is her feature debut and premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2019.