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Directed by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh

French and Arabic, with subtitles in English

100 minutes, Color, 2002

"The first full-length feature film by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh evokes memories of the worst atrocities to come out of the civil war of the '90s in Algeria. A young teacher, Rachida, is teaching at a school in Algiers, when she is stopped in the street by a group of youths who demand she take a bomb and place it in the school. When she refuses, she is shot in cold blood after recognizing one of the terrorists. Miraculously, she survives. During her recovery, she hides with her mother in a village far from the city. But terrorism is unavoidable there too. There are no safe havens in Algeria. Rachida is a moving story about a community - and above all about the women in it - under the threat of terror. It's a world where one can be kidnapped, raped, or shot, where an unmarried woman with a scar on her belly can't go to a bathhouse, because people might think she has had a Caesarean."

– (2003 International Film Festival Rotterdam)

About the Director
Yamina Bachir-Chouikh was born in 1954 in Algiers, and entered the film industry as an editor and scriptwriter. Rachida is her first feature-length film.

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