Inch'Allah Dimanche

Starring:Inch Allah Dimanche
Studio: Film Movement
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

Toronto Film Festival winner INCH'ALLAH DIMANCHE is the July film in The Film Movement Series. In 1974, under the Family Reunion law, the French government decided to allow the families of Algerian men working in France to legally emigrate to join them. InchAllah Dimanche tells the story of one such family. After a tearful good-bye to her friends and family in Algeria, Zouina (Fejria Deliba) arrives in France with her three children and moves into a house that her husband has rented for them, filled with the hopes and promises of a new life. However, Zouinas husband Ahmed fears that his wifes honor may be threatened in this foreign society and subsequently forbids her to leave the house. Throughout the film, Zouina is physically abused by her husband and emotionally attacked by her caustically evil mother-in-law. Zouinas neighbor, Madame Donze (France Darry), is a xenophobic busybody so obsessed with winning the prize for the best flower garden that she cannot empathize with Zouina and is cruel to her. Meanwhile, a young woman who works in a makeup factory, Nicole (Mathilde Seigner), helps Zouina feel accepted, and sparks her interest in French culture and the new world around her. As the days pass, Zouina finds herself struggling between traditional Algerian values and the rapid feminization and modernization of France. Constantly subject to the tyrannical wrath of her domineering mother-in-law and miles away from her friends and family, Zouina finds her only source of relief is Sunday the one day that Ahmed and his mother are out of the house when she takes her children on excursions through the countryside and attempts to come to terms with the difficulties of immigration, integration and an ostensibly impossible sense of independence. This film is available for exhibition.

Customer Reviews:

God willing . . ........2006-09-19

According to many accounts, this film portrays what is the reality of married life for many Muslim women - treated as something between a servant and a prisoner in their own home. Set in the 1970s, this film follows the experience of an Algerian woman, who with her three young children and mother-in-law joins her husband, a guest worker in France. Forced to remain at home rather than be exposed to the corrupting influences of the world outside, she is brow-beaten by her mother-in-law and physically beaten for perceived lapses from the rigid expectations of her husband. Nonetheless, at risk to life and limb, she seizes brief opportunities to escape from home with her children in search of another Algerian family she has heard of in the neighborhood.

Actress Fejira Deliba is wonderful in the role of the wife, Zouina. Beleaguered at home, she is undefeated and reaches out to the alien culture around her, listening to game shows and talk shows on the radio, and making friends with two French women, one of them a neighbor who brings her contraband in the form of cosmetics. A third woman, who lives next door, is obsessed with her showcase backyard garden and together with her husband introduces a farcical element in an otherwise disturbing portrayal of domestic abuse. And as other reviewers have noted, the fantasy ending does nothing to dismiss the dismay and anguish in Zouina's growing realization of her actual situation.

The finesse with which the Zouida is built is just beautiful........2006-05-04

Humans look for a peaceful dwelling on the earth. Homesickness is a characteristic of human existence. We belong to where we feel at home.

I must admit that there seems to be flaws in story and some problems with character development. However this originates from the nature of narrative style the director Yamina Benguigui prefers. You must have heard the literary writing style called "flow or stream of consciousness" to which James Joyce's "Ulysses" shown as an example. In the same manner, the film tells the story as a "flow of memories", most probably from a child's point of view. Reading an interview with Yamina Benguigui, I learn that the texture of the work is personal.

Childhood memories are sometimes clear and sometimes obscure. And a child's perception of the events is mainly based on images. So this explains the power and emotional impact of some scenes in the film: for ex. Zouida's breaking the window with bare hand. Or think of the old French couple's garden. They compete for the best garden award. On the other hand, the Algerian family's garden is chaotic. And the garden is not their own yet, the children can not play there as they wish. Around the symbolism of garden, we get a from-inside look at the emigrant psychology in its naive form through a child's eye.

The finesse with which the Zouida is built is just beautiful - she just shines. The movie is not stereotypical at all. The film also doesn't fall into the trap of making the ending happy and conclusive - at the end you're just left with a smile on your face and feeling like Zouida is actually somewhere out there living her life. The supporting actors are perfect, from the bus driver to the neighbors to the grocery store clerk. The pace of the movie is that of a lullaby - a still, sad, lullaby. This movie deserves all the praise.

"France is messing up her brain.".......2006-04-22

"Inch'Allah Dimanche" is an amazing film--right up until the last 5 minutes when it loses all credibility. Set in 1974, it's the heart-wrenching story of an Algerian family reunited under French president Chirac's "Family Reunion" policy. Up until that time, Algerian men who worked in France were not allowed to bring their families with them, but in 1974, that law changed. Zouina (Fejria Deliba) and her three small children leave for France with her truculent mother-in-law Aicha (Rabia Mokeddem). Zouina--who's lived apart from her husband Ahmed (Zinedine Soualem) for 10 years doesn't want to leave her elderly mother, but she's dragged aboard the ship, and it sails to France.

The reunion isn't a particularly happy one. While Ahmed greets his mother and ushers her graciously inside their new home, Zouina is more-or-less ignored, and this sets the tone for the relationships in the household. Zouina is completely under the control of her mother-in-law, and forbidden to leave the house, she's treated like a slave. Zouina is relentlessly abused verbally as a matter of course, and beaten when she actually does something wrong. While Zouina speaks French, she doesn't understand the culture, and many incidents occur that result in beatings. She manages to make two friends--Nicole, a young divorced woman, and the widow of an officer killed in Algeria.

While Zouina's plight is explored with some intensity, the film also includes moments of lightheartedness. Zouina's neighbours--the Donzes--are a house-proud pair of gardening fanatics who are simultaneously appalled and fascinated by the goings-on next door. Unfortunately, as the film reaches a crescendo, it dives into complete implausibility, and there is no reason whatsoever to explain the complete reversal that takes place. This cop-out ending just doesn't fit the rest of the film, and that's a shame. From writer/director Yamina Benguigui "Inch'Allah Dimanche" is in Arabic and French with English subtitles--displacedhuman

Moving film.......2005-10-24

Inch'Allah Dimanche brings to life the experiences of an Algerian woman reunited with her husband in France. Although it is not fully representative in all aspects of an immigrant's life, the movie highlights certain problems of female immigrants. For instance, her feeling of isolation is well portrayed through her relationship with her neighbors and her family. This isolation, due to her role in the family, a language barrier and her homesickness, is one of the main themes in the film. Domestic violence is also portrayed in the relationship she has with her husband.
Not all Algerians live in the suburbs (which are a mixture of immigrants and working class French). The husband seemed to have a stable job and he had been living in France for the past 10 years. There is a possibility he created a financial base so that he could provide for his family.
I would say this is a must see. I would also like to recommend Esquive if anyone would like a good representation of adolescence in the suburbs.

Beur Immigration.......2005-05-02

There are not enough works available in the United States that deal with immigration to France and the life experiences of beurs (the French expression for North Africans in France). This was a helpful, though imperfect, intervention.

A mother arrives in France with her mean mother-in-law and three children to reunite with her husband. The film is filled with stock characters: the xenophobic neighbor, the diversity-loving neighbor, etc. You can tell that this has a limited budget because there are few characters and the space in which they film is very small. The script isn't that strong either.

I am glad they chose a woman as the main character. Unfortunately, her sadness seemed forced. She'd cry at the drop of a pin and no one would be there to comfort her. The husband seemed ineffective.

This movie mentions that families reunited with male workers in 1974. The film doesn't say whether it takes place then or not. At one point, the mother laments that there are no other Algerians around with whom to practice their culture. However, I imagine this situation is far from true in the France of 2005. Further, I hear that beurs live in crowded housing in the suburbs (which are bad, unlike in the US) as opposed to the nice house with its nice garden in this film.

I know the practice is not sexual, but the husband kisses another Algerian man approximately five times as they converse. Since both of the characters are hot, it was sexy to watch. The actor who played the father looks a lot like the light-skinned, African-American actor Roger Guenveur Smith.

This film is not as strong as "Roots" or "Mi Familia." Still, it was helpful to see another tale about people of color and their immigration to the West.

Average customer rating:

Inch'Allah dimanche [Region 2]
Starring: Fejria Deliba , Rabia Mokeddem , Amina Annabi , Anass Behri , and Hamza Dubuih
Director: Yamina Benguigui
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( I ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00007ELQO

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