Samir Guittara

In the streets of Algiers, the fundamentalist fervor of the Black Decade is growing. Fella, a 40-year-old Algerian woman, is about to go out to participate in a television program and be interviewed. But doubt, fear, and pain make her hesitate. Is this the moment to speak out as a woman, to remember the past, to recount the dream, the utopia, and the reality after independence?

This movie portrays three women living in today's Algeria between modern society and Islamic fundamentalism, self-determination and dependence. Goucem, a young woman who works for a photographer and mistress of a rich doctor, her mother Papicha, a former cabaret star, and her best friend Fifi, a prostitute, all live in a hotel in the city center of Algiers. Their difficult personal situation and the growing influence of Islam lead to dramatic consequences...