PAPICHA

Algiers in the 1990s, in the midst of civil war. Nedjma (Lyna Khoudri) is eighteen, a student living in a university dormitory. At night she slips through the fence with her friend Wassila and drives to a club, where she sells the dresses she designs herself to young women – “papichas”, as they are called. As bombings shake the city and the Islamists impose ever more bans, reaching even onto campus, Nedjma refuses to shape her life around them. She decides to hold a fashion show in the dormitory. “Papicha” (Algeria, 2019) is the first feature by Mounia Meddour.

Meddour was herself a journalism student in Algiers in those years and lived in a dormitory as shown in the film. She tells of freedom as a daily assertion, with a lead character whose energy carries the film. It premiered in 2019 in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival; at the 2020 Césars, “Papicha” won best first film and Lyna Khoudri won best female newcomer. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2019.

Shown at the 2019 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2019 · Film Archive