C’est à Constantine by Bahia Bencheikh-El-Fegoun
Algeria
30 min | 2007
The online presentation of films from „Arab Shorts 2009” on this site ended by 31 December 2011.
The author left her hometown Constantine for eight years and returns, and through three very close relatives (her sister, her friend, her father) she search of reasons for this cut, this abandonment, questioning individual and collective responsibilities. She furrows deep in her roots and questions the bonds that one can have with the place of origin.
Algeria
30 min | 2007
The online presentation of films from „Arab Shorts 2009” on this site ended by 31 December 2011.
The author left her hometown Constantine for eight years and returns, and through three very close relatives (her sister, her friend, her father) she search of reasons for this cut, this abandonment, questioning individual and collective responsibilities. She furrows deep in her roots and questions the bonds that one can have with the place of origin.
About the Filmmaker
After completing her degree in geological engineering, Bahia Bencheikh-El-Fegoun worked in an advertising and communications company, then moved to cinema where she worked as assistant director on feature length films for five years (most of them are art films: Manara by Blkacem Hadjaj, Morituri by Okacha Touita, Once upon a Time in the Wadi (Il était une fois dans l’oued) by Djamel Bensalah, Betrayal (La trahison) by Philipe Faucon, Barakat by Djamila Sahraoui, Arabic Nights (Nuits d’arabie) by Paul Kieffer). She then turned to documentary where she had the opportunity to work with very well known filmmakers such as: Jean-Pierre Lledo, Serge Lalou, Richard Dindo Jacques Debs. While making these films she discovered a taste for the documentary. Later she won a scholarship to Ateliers Varan in Paris where she took two training courses: one in the editing and writing of documentary and the second in filmmaking. In October 2008, she directed her first documentary C’est a Constantine, in the framework of Bejaia documentary workshop (cinema and memory).
After completing her degree in geological engineering, Bahia Bencheikh-El-Fegoun worked in an advertising and communications company, then moved to cinema where she worked as assistant director on feature length films for five years (most of them are art films: Manara by Blkacem Hadjaj, Morituri by Okacha Touita, Once upon a Time in the Wadi (Il était une fois dans l’oued) by Djamel Bensalah, Betrayal (La trahison) by Philipe Faucon, Barakat by Djamila Sahraoui, Arabic Nights (Nuits d’arabie) by Paul Kieffer). She then turned to documentary where she had the opportunity to work with very well known filmmakers such as: Jean-Pierre Lledo, Serge Lalou, Richard Dindo Jacques Debs. While making these films she discovered a taste for the documentary. Later she won a scholarship to Ateliers Varan in Paris where she took two training courses: one in the editing and writing of documentary and the second in filmmaking. In October 2008, she directed her first documentary C’est a Constantine, in the framework of Bejaia documentary workshop (cinema and memory).
