Dounia Bovet-Woltèche

Biography

In 1962, Axelle travelled from France to Algeria. In the middle of a social turmoil as the battle for the liberation of the African country was been waged, she met and befriended Alí. Now, Axelle visits Alí, who is lying on his deathbed in a Parisian hospital. After the death of his friend, the woman sets on a trip back to Algeria to visit Ali’s wife in the town he used to live. It’s also a trip to the past, in which Axelle remembers her first time in Africa, back when she was just a simple teacher, and how in 1954 Ali was sentenced to death for fighting in favor of Algerian independence. Shot in a black and white, hypnotic Super 8, the images combine with a first person narrative that tells more than one story in more than one timeline, and they form a misty exercise on memory as Axelle tries to tell (Her)story to her young grandson.