Samia: A conflict between modernity and tradition

‘Samia’ a moving drama about Algerian girls in France, growing up modern on the outside and miserable on the inside will be screened from 3.00 pm on 27 Tuesday and 6.30 pm onwards on February 28 at Alliance Française.

Directed by Philippe Faucon the French movie subtitled in English depicts a teenage girl of Algerian descent living with her family in Marseilles. She must struggle with the tradition-bound rituals and behaviour of her home life while moving into the modern world which she must become a part of.

Samia (Lynda Benahouda) is a pretty Algerian teenager whose family has settled in the French city of Marseilles. Her ailing father, strict mother, and overbearing brother, Yacine (Mohamed Chaouch), struggle to uphold the rigid codes of their former culture and Muslim religion, but find it difficult when thrust against the looser environment of their new, modern city.

One sister has even run away from home after falling in love with a non-Algerian, fearful of her brother's wrath. Stuck in the middle of all this confusion and turmoil is Samia, who embraces the French way of life, yet confronts racism whenever she steps onto a bus.
A seemingly endless onslaught of contradictions--namely, feeling like an outsider at every single moment--confuse Samia to the point that she is almost unable to find a release for her bottled up aggression.

She must continue to live her life, waiting for a solution to her troubles, which never seems to come. Faucon's film is a relentless glimpse into a rarely seen world, featuring a ferocious performance by newcomer Benahouda.

The film is ostensibly about quotidian aspects of life for an immigrant family in a large, urban setting. But the film digs deeper to explore the inherent tensions between tradition and modernity, between generations, in an immigrant family living in contemporary Europe.

Directed in 2000, film Samia was the official Selection of the Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival in that year.