Alexandre Arcady or nostalgia for Algeria in a family film

Algeria and family are at the center of Alexandre Arcady’s films, The Little Blond of the Casbah, which comes out Wednesday, November 15, is no exception to the rule. The subject of the film is based on a director’s trip to Algiers where he grew up. It is a boulevard that the filmmaker offers himself to evoke his childhood spent in an Algeria which was preparing to become independent in 1962. Memories, memories.

Before and after

Antoine, director, comes to Algiers with his son to present his new film, where he talks about his youth spent in the white city. The walks bring to the surface the memories of a little boy happy with his family, with colorful characters and friendships that are threatened by the growing desire for independence. The ups and downs follow one another in solidarity, while Antoine, very quickly attracted by cinema, affirms that he will later become a filmmaker.

Antoine, this “little blond from the Casbah”, is obviously Alexandre Arcady. Algeria, the pieds-noirs and Jewishness run through his films: What day owes to night, There, my country, The Great Carnival, The Great Forgiveness… Although he has dabbled in thrillers more than once, Alexandre Arcady always testifies to a separation, with a life before and after Algeria. In The Little Blond of the Casbah, he brings back a time, a country, a family, friends, with the eyes of a child. This vision becomes idealized, and we can count on Arcady to get the message across lyrically. Note, on this subject, the presence of a devilish Jean Benguigui in a role disguised as Grandma Lisa.

Solar romance

A man from the south, Alexandre Arcady gives himself in his staging, and tinges his string of light anecdotes with a sunny romance. The “events” in Algeria remain in the background, and the family has decided to make do until their departure. The film revolves around Antoine’s vocation to make cinema, Arcady is in the footsteps of The Fabelmans by Steven Spielberg, on the same subject. The dominant aspect remains the absence of drama, the film bathed in white light like the buildings of the Algerian capital. If the production evokes the memory, the frame is more summary, often reduced to a TV format, medium shot.

The Little Blond of the Casbah could be the introduction to a saga, a series around a changing Algerian society. But it is the child’s gaze that Arcady favors. His new film refers to his first opus, The sirocco blow (1979), where a childhood in Oran was mentioned in its first part. The director seems to have explored the subject of this first attempt, moving it to Algiers with more personality, with cinema as a guest. Alexandre Arcady describes himself as a filmmaker and tells a Franco-Algerian story with a focus on entertainment.

The sheet

Gender : Drama
Director: Alexandre Arcady
Actors : Léo Campion, Marie Gillain, Christian Berkel, Pascal Elbé, Patrick Mille, Françoise Fabian, Michel Boujenah, Jean Benguigui
Country : Francid
Duration : 2:06
Exit : November 15, 2023
Distributer : Dulac Distribution

Synopsis: A film director returns with his son to Algiers to present his new film which tells the story of his childhood and his family in Algeria in the 1960s. The filmmaker walks through his hometown and, through the memories of A little boy not quite like the others, he makes us relive the moments of happiness, laughter and tears of his Algiers childhood. It’s a whole touching universe and a gallery of colorful portraits that the film resurrects.