La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1979)

Original title

نوبة نساء جبل شنوة

Directed by

Assia Djebar

Genre

drama, documentary

Country

Algeria

Runtime

1h 55m

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 7 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A woman returns to her homeland in Algeria and walks through rural landscapes, listening to the stories of other women. The film follows her journey as she recalls a local resistance figure and weaves together memories, music, and daily life.

contemplativefragmentarymeditativeslow-pacedpoeticreflectivesomberrooted

What happens

La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (English: The Nubah of the Women of Mount Chenoua) is a 1979 Algerian documentary film directed by Assia Djebar. The film was the first of two films directed by Djebar during her decade-long hiatus from writing, produced outside of Algerian filmmaking circles. The accompanying soundtrack was composed by Hungarian Béla Bartók, who visited in Algeria in 1913 to study popular music. The film is dedicated to the musician, as well as to Zoulikha Oudai (born Yamina Echaïb), a heroine of Algerian colonial resistance to whom Djebar also dedicated La Femme sans sépulture four decades later. The film borrows the structure and takes the title of nubah, a traditional Andalusian music form composed of five parts. The documentary sparked debate in Algeria, and was screened in Carthage in 1978 and at the Venice Biennale a year later, where it won the International Critics' Prize. It is a work studied in many American universities. Only one existing digital copy of the film remains. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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