Roqia
In 1993, Ahmed gets discharged from the hospital with his entire head wrapped in gauze after a severe accident. Soon he is plagued by mysterious occurrences. Thirty years later, seemingly unrelated acts of violence are piling up on the city streets, which brings two experienced exorcists to the scene. Just how the two storylines are merged and how the traumatic substrate of Algeria gets shifted from the past to the present is at the heart of Yanis Koussim’s outstanding horror drama, Roqia. Having premiered only a few weeks ago at the Venice Film Festival, the film brings a breath of fresh air (well, blight) to the stagnant subgenre of exorcist movies, not only because it capitalizes on the chill-inducing potential of Arabic mysticism on the big screen with gusto and great elegance. (Markus Keuschnigg)
Yanis Koussim trained at La Fémis and directed several short films, including Khti (2008) and Khouya (Mon frère) (2010), which won awards at Locarno and Amiens. He co-wrote the screenplay of Rayhana Obermeyer’s I Still Hide to Smoke as well as the script for El Zahia, an upcoming project by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri. Yanis is also the founder of Plateau19, a collective of filmmakers advocating for independent cinema in Algeria. Roqia is his feature film debut.
