143 Sahara Street

Malika is a woman of seventy four. She lives in a small white house in the middle of the desert. The house stands at the edge of a road. The road is the line that joins Algiers to Tamanrasset. Malika serves those who pass by. A dog and a cat live with her. The director had gone there with a friend. The friend is the journalist Chawki Amari. Amari had written about that journey in a book. Malika joins the film with the same measure. She speaks little and moves little. Very little is known of her past, though it seems she came from the north. Hassen Ferhani’s Algerian, French and Qatari coproduction of 2021 runs ninety minutes.