Said Amadis Movies

A spy discovers doing a favor for a friend leads her into unexpectedly dangerous circumstances in this dark comedy. It's been close a decade since French intelligence agent Irene (Juliette Binoche) has heard from her friend Elliot (Nick Nolte), an American CIA operative who left Europe and took up a new identity under mysterious circumstances. But one day out of the blue Irene gets a call from Elliot as he asks her to track down his daughter Orlando (Sara Forestier), currently living in the French countryside, and bring her to Paris so they can re-connect. Irene agrees, but she soon discovers Orlando has nothing good to say about her missing dad and only grudgingly agrees to pay him a visit. When they arrive in Paris, Irene and Orlando find the family reunion is bigger than they thought -- David (Tom Riley), Elliot's stepson, is also on hand, though David and Orlando mix like oil and water. As Elliot tries to juggle meetings with his two children and Irene tries to help by playing interference, Elliot is also visited by a deranged American intelligence representative, William Pound (John Turturro), who along with Elliot knows something about a possible attack on the United States, as well as a pair of shadowy moneymen (Mathieu Demy and Said Amadis) who want to know more about the plot and are willing to pay for the privilege. Quelques Jours En Septembre (aka A Few Days In September) was the first directorial credit for veteran screenwriter Santiago Amigorena. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

OSS 117: Cairo -- Nest of Spies constitutes the eighth installment in a long-running series of movies about OSS 117 (the government code name for Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath) -- a French super-spy and European equivalent of James Bond. The creation of author Jean Bruce, OSS eventually starred in over 265 novels and seven cinematizations through 1970. The first seven film outings were sober and straight-faced; the eighth go-round (the first after a 38-year lapse) does a 180 to shamelessly poke fun of the rules established by the genre. A glib yet intelligent spoof, it joins the ranks of Our Man Flint (1965), Aghaye Hallou (1970), Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street (1984), and other international pictures that glibly satirize the subgenre made infamous to Americans by Bond; like Mad Mission 3, it even packs in an OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin) with a startling resemblance to Sean Connery. The film's comic conceit involves making OSS 117 arrogant, conceited, culturally insensitive, chauvinistic, and thoroughly moronic (he pretends that various cultural institutions and religious practices, for instance, are nonexistent if he is unfamiliar with them); yet the character somehow manages to slide through outrageously dangerous situations unscathed, time and again. The teaser prologue finds OSS 117 in Berlin, where he outwits the Nazis by stealing vital documents from them, hijacks an Axis plane in mid-nosedive, and saves himself and the craft at the last yawning moment. Ten years later, he journeys from Rome to Cairo, where he investigates the death of a fellow agent, posing as the proprietor of a chicken farm. His "side" activities during this jaunt involve hammering out a peace arrangement for the Middle East, keeping tabs on the Suez Canal, and monitoring the Russians. Jean-François Halin scripted the film, maintaining an utterly deadpan tone throughout; Michel Hazanavicius directed. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The bitter legacy of the French/Algerian War set the stage of this drama from director Alexandre Arcady, himself a Frenchman of Algerian birth. Pierre Nivel (Antoine DeCaunes) is a noted French television journalist and network anchorman. One day, he receives an unexpected visitor, an Algerian man with a message from someone named Leila. Pierre was born in Algeria, and he lived there until he was 17, when the French were forced to leave after Algeria won its independence in 1962. He's kept his Algerian past a secret from most of his friends and colleagues, but the note from Leila, his teenage sweetheart, leads him back to the land of his birth. It turns out that Leila now has a grown daughter, Amina (Nozha Khouadra), and Leila needs Pierre's help to smuggle her and her daughter out of the country. A defiant woman, Amina's refusal to go through with an arranged marriage to a fundamentalist and removal of her veil in public has put both herself and her family in great danger. La Bas ... Mon Pays/Return to Algiers was the first French production to be shot on location in Algeria since the nation won its independence. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though this is billed as a combination drama and comedy, but the storyline gives no clue as to the humorous elements of this Algerian picture. In the story, a brother and his sister are orphaned when their father accepts a challenge to fight a trained bear and is killed by it. Two decades later, the Algerian war of independence is underway. The siblings have had an incestuous relationship, but the sister falls in love with a French officer in charge of their village, and the brother leaves for parts unknown. After the war is over, the brother returns to his village, only to discover that his sister did in childbirth. He has brought back a Russian wife, and for some reason the villagers elect him to be their mayor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in Ghana, African Timber concerns dirty work in the lumber industry. Heiner Lauterbach plays the new manager of a West German lumber company. The manager's predecessor has died under mysterious circumstances. The apparent reason for the man's death, which the new manager does not ascertain until he's in too deep, is that the dead man was about to blow the whistle on an illegal mahogany-smuggling operation masterminded by the company's corrupt owners. This is the sort of pessimistic film wherein no good deed goes unpunished. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Valeria Golino plays a double role in this thrilling crime drama. A woman returns years later to Tangiers in order to track down the thugs responsible for the gangland-style massacre that killed her father. Corrigan (Thierry Lhermitte) is the local detective recruited to find the international crime boss (Roger Hanin). The heroine seduces the kingpin's son (Vincent Lindon) in order to discover where the killers are hidden then methodically sets out to destroy them. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A misanthropic comedy by Gérard Lauzier, Tête Dans Le Sac satirizes the arrogance of a 50-year-old owner of a prosperous ad agency as he tries to join a swinging, twentysomething clique of fast-living friends. Romain (Guy Marchand) drives a Jaguar, lives in an opulent bachelor pad, and has a gorgeous mistress (Marisa Berenson) -- yet he is trying to seduce the 22-year-old Eva (Fanny Bastien). She, in turn, is really interested in Dany (Patrick Bruel), a young man whom Romain hires to work in his agency. While Romain is played for a fool by Eva and her friends among the cocaine crowd, Dany has his own plans for the future and they do not involve his foolish boss. Aside from a few stereotypical portrayals of the denizens of a wild nightlife, Lauzier succeeds at revving his cynicism into high gear as the young sharks swim around an unsuspecting Romain. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In a beautifully animated story with the thinnest of plot lines, Gwen is a young orphan adopted by a nomadic tribe whose desert landscape is occasionally showered with artifacts like toasters and coffee pots from the mysterious beings who live in the City of the Dead. Unfortunately, one of the nomadic children was kidnapped by these feared beings, and Gwen, along with a wise and ancient woman, leave for the City to rescue the child. Once they cross the enclosing walls, they discover a maze of suburban dwellings where people perform religious rites based on a sacred book -- a mail-order catalog. The brave duo continue on, determined to save the nomadic child from these strange people. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide