Interview with Sofia Djama

On the occasion of our forthcoming publication Satisfaction by Nina Bouraoui, we interviewed Algerian film director Sofia Djama about her film Les Bienheureux, 2017 (The Blessed). Djama’s film is an independent award-winning production that tells the story of an Algerian family in the early 2000s, after the civil war in the 90s. Les Bienheureuxtakes place in 24 hours in which we enter the life of a middle-class family. Sami is a gynaecologist that performs clandestine abortions, Amal is a college professor and she is very disappointed about Algeria’s political and social reality; a disappointment that is also reflected in her marriage with Sami. A wonderful film to consider next to Satisfaction as both stories explore the clash of cultures in Algeria and the way women respond to it.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, Sofia? Where did you grow up? Where do you live?

I was born and raised in Algeria and I still live there, although I spend long periods of time in France. I have the opportunity to go from one country to the other whenever I want to but I’m not French although my adoptive mother is French. That is why I feel very comfortable with both cultures. My French mother lived in Algeria with my adoptive Algerian father. But even people whose parents are both Algerian share this double culture. Until the late 1970s, French was very present in schools. It wasn’t until the early 80s that schools started to teach more in Arabic, except for French literature. The new generation speaks less in French than my generation and the previous one.

Can you tell us more about the contextualisation of the film?

In the film there are references to the civil war in the 90s. We call it the Black Decade, which goes approximately from 1991 to 2001. We consider that was the length of the war but it is not exact because after this we still had terrorist attacks from the Islamists. In 2006-7 there were attacks that killed a lot of people. The film takes place in 2008, and all this tension plays in the background.

In the film, Samir, the husband, is a gynaecologist that performs illegal abortions. What is the situation of abortion in Algeria and why did you choose to incorporate this aspect in your film?

Abortion is illegal unless you have been raped, your life is in danger, or the baby is very sick. I wanted to show that there are illegal abortions anyway, so why not legalise them all? Samir does it because he says he wants to help these women but Amal is more cynical about it and tells him abortion is also a business and he makes money with it.

NINA BOURAOUI

Titles By This Author

SATISFACTION