Nozha Khouadra Movies
Like The Bear, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's acclaimed animal picture released 15 years prior, Two Brothers offers a family-friendly epic as told through the eyes of its four-legged protagonists, who, in this case, are sibling tiger cubs Koumal and Sangha. Though a life in the jungles of French colonial Indochina circa the 1920s seemed certain, the cubs are separated shortly after their birth when the notorious hunter Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce) kills their father. Koumal is whisked away to a circus, where he is cruelly beaten into submission and forced to perform tricks to earn his keep. Sangha fares better at first -- he lands in the posh estate of a French government official who wants the big cat to serve as a companion for his lonely son, though a series of unforeseen circumstances ultimately finds Sangha in the hands of a man determined to turn him into an aggressive prizefighter. Understandably, neither tiger is happy with his arrangements, and both escape captivity in hopes of returning to the jungle. Unfortunately for them, the prospect of two loose tigers is hardly comforting for the locals, who quickly demand that McRory kill the cubs before they threaten the safety of the village. Once McRory finds the tigers in their natural habitat, however, he faces a crisis of conscience he hadn't thought possible. Two Brothers also features Jean-Claude Dreyfus and Freddie Highmore. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Pearce, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, (more)
- 2002
Louis-Pascal Couvelaire's action thriller Sueurs (Sweat) stars Jean-Hugues Anglade as a man on a dangerous mission. Truck driver Harvey (Anglade), mechanic Victor (Cyrille Thouvenin), Noh (Joaquim De Almeida), and Simon (Sagamore Stevenin) are hired to drive stolen goods through the Moroccan desert. There is little loyalty between the members of the foursome. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Hugues Anglade, Joaquim de Almeida, (more)
- 2000
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
- Starring:
- Antoine de Caunes, Nozha Khouadra, (more)
- 1999
- NR
The idea for this film about a generation and its lost ideals came to Romain Goupil after attending several funerals of friends in the fall of 1996, where the '68 generation, now in influential positions in media or politics, kept meeting each other. It seemed as if the revolution that they had tried to make was being buried with each coffin. A mort la mort is in some ways an homage to this generation, now in their fifties. They were a privileged generation that thought that they could change the world, doing everything that their parents failed to do. There were no actual deaths in France as there were in Germany or Italy, but the system was not ideal for personal issues or for love. There was always a scapegoat for the injustices of the world, be it capitalism or imperialism. That way the blame could be placed somewhere else. Some of the '68 generation are still faithful to the principles of their youth and still continue to fight for the illusions of the past. But with the war going on in Kosovo, the only way is to take direct action against Fascism. While narrating the story of a generation, the director uses humor, making fun of the thousand ways of fidelity to ideas, to passion and to women and how the ideal of fidelity fares when confronted with reality. The protagonist, Thomas (played by Goupil himself) tries to face life that has passed with a theory of offense. That is why he has to say "'Death to Death'' to put an end to all deaths, but this is an illusion, it is fiction which only cinema can make real. The film tries to face all issues by taking a contrary approach. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Goupil, Marianne Denicourt, (more)
La Nouvelle Eve is a bittersweet comedy about an independent woman, thirty-ish and single, and her unexpected need for the affections of a forty-ish balding family man with no interest in acquiring a mistress. Camille (Karin Viard) works as a lifeguard at an indoor swimming pool in Paris. The idea of domesticity bores her to tears; she would rather see herself having kinky sex in elevators or restrooms than carrying a baby in her arms. But something has been missing in her life, and she's absent-minded and irritable. When she trips on the street and falls, Alexis (Pierre-Loup Rajot) offers her his handkerchief. Camille is self-destructive in her obsession to possess Alexis. But Alexis is not totally indifferent, either. Acting is quite remarkable, particularly the performance of Karin Viard as a modern woman who is completely confused with her old-fashioned emotions. The film pokes fun at the bourgeois family life as well as the singles scene. La Nouvelle Eve, which was produced by Paolo Bronco, was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karin Viard, Pierre-Loup Rajot, (more)
- 1997
This French family fantasy follows in the footsteps of the fine and funny Big (1988). Solemn French schoolteacher Albert Crastaing (Jean-Louis Richard) punishes a trio of 12-year-olds by having them write a Kafkaesque essay with a body-switching premise, cueing the film's storyline of kids transformed into their parents. Nouredine is a French-born Arab whose father (Zinedine Soualem) is an artist forced to drive a cab. Catholic Igor's father (François Morel) died from AIDS after a blood transfusion. Joseph is a Jew whose father (Pierre Arditi) is a cranky and irritable tailor. The trio encounters a prostitute, Yolande (Catherine Jacob). Elsewhere, the parents inhabit bodies of their children and experience problems kids face daily. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Arditi, François Morel, (more)
- 1997
Two very violent men have conspired to steal a valuable solid gold image of an African deity from the museum in Mali where it is being kept. They had it smuggled out with a number of well-made but very cheap replicas. The plan was to give each of the replicas to the members of a new squash club as a diversion, and profit from the original (worth $1 million) themselves. There is a slip-up, however, and the real statue goes to one of the players. The deliveryman now has to track down all the statues, and in this antic caper comedy, that's easier said than done. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antoine de Caunes, Emmanuelle Seigner, (more)
The lives of three disparate Tunisian women -- united only by the treatment of their gender by their countrymen -- intersect in this provocative drama that quietly protests the continued oppression of women in North African Moslem countries. Leila is in her 20s and is secretly in love with Hassan. The two must tryst on the sly, for her father is a strict traditionalist. One day three fellows see Leila and Hassan kissing on a beach. Believing her to be a loose woman, they attack and try to rape her. She escapes and is picked up alongside the road by Naima, a middle-aged doctor. Naima once studied medicine in Moscow and had been in love with a Russian student but was later forced to marry another in a union her parents arranged. Once at work, Naima works on Amina, a young woman who was terribly injured during a "fall." Actually it was Amina's husband who caused the injuries. Realizing this, Naima gives the girl some strong advice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
- NR
In this French drama, the French-born son of North African immigrants attempts to cope with his guilt after he accidentally causes a family tragedy. The tale begins as 25-year old Ismael and his teenage brother Mouloud drive into Marseille where they plan on visiting relatives before heading back to their native North African country to join their parents. Both young men consider themselves French rather than North African, and Mouloud has vowed that he will not go back to the desert. Their colorful relatives, most particularly their iron-willed aunt, help teach the fellows important lessons about life and the nature of friendship and self-accountability. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sami Bouajila, Nozha Khouadra, (more)
- 1990
- R
Merwan grew up in France and only speaks French, but he is a resident alien from Algeria. Because of a minor infraction of the law, he is shipped back "home" to Algeria and is immediately drafted into the army. He speaks no Arabic and is held in contempt by his fellow soldiers. It's not long before he deserts his unit and attempts to join his girlfriend, another French-raised Algerian who was tricked into visiting the country and is now being imprisoned there. Together, with almost no knowledge of the place or the culture, they attempt to flee across the border. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nozha Khouadra, Pierre-Loup Rajot, (more)
