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Reviews
Salut cousin! (1996)
Greetings from Alger
I happened to see this film on TV and I'm happy of it! It is a touching story of a young Algerian man, Alilo, who comes to Paris and wants to meet his relatives who have immigrated there years ago. He meets his cousin Mok who pretends to be the succesful person of his family. At first, Alilo believes him but finds out the truth when he visits the family. Nothing is like Mok has said. The film is very realistic, sometimes almost depressing. Alilo, who is used to people disappearing and getting killed in Algeria, expects France to be a paradise. But living there as an immigrant isn't such easy. Still, these people love Paris. The cultural differences between the native Algerians and the immigrated ones become clear through the film. Alilo, who never has spoken to a girl outside the family, falls in the first one who speaks to him. Parisians seem very free to him and he seems very clumsy to them. In fact, he's a very nice and polite young man who tries to learn what he can on his adventerous trip.
How is it going to end?
Samt El Qusur (1994)
Silence strucks
This film is a gateway to Tunisian culture as it was when the country became independent. The principal character is a young girl who lives in a palace, but she is not a princess. In fact, her mother is some kind of a slave who works there without beeing paid for it and having any chance to get out of the palace. She doesn't want to tell her daughter, who her father is. Outside, the country is aiming to get loose of the French power. This is a story about strong women who live and work together and take care of each other. They are not beautiful like the American or European film stars, but still somehow sexy and very feminine. They are afraid of their sexuality, because they cannot control the desire it awakes in the powerful men around them. Their only hope to get out of the palace is marriage, but very few men see them inside the walls of the palace. One could think that the movie is very pessimistic. In the contary, the love of the women and of music create an atmosphere of hope and the new generation has a possibility to choose...
Trainspotting (1996)
Long live Scottish humour
The film that made me love Scotland! The language, the atmosphere, the humour - not the drugs. Touching, sometimes disgusting, very human. The Worst Toilet of Scotland -scene is surrealistic, almost beautiful - but - return to the real world. A good story and wonderful actors. My favourite character is Spud, but I still became an Ewan McGregor fan.
The book by Irvine Welsh is worth of reading, and I've seen Trainspotting on stage, too. Three marvellous, but totally different experiences!