Okacha Touita

Harraga Blues

Zine and Rayanne plan to flee to a dreamland, a fantasy haven on the north shore of the Mediterranean. The crossing is commonly made in fishing boats and other small craft; hundreds of harragas die each year. Zine embarks for Spain with a group of others, while Rayyane decides to stay back to raise more money for the crossing - which involves tricking his uncle into lending him money under the pretense of running a local business. But, like so many other working poor around the world, Rayanne refuses to weigh the danger against the prospect of a better world.

Harragas

Set in the northern Algerian port city of Mostaganem. The title refers to the hordes of refugees, the 'Harragas', who smuggle themselves out of the country via any means possible. Here we meet one such group, Rachid, Nasser and Imene who pay a smuggler, Hassan, to take them to Spain in his rickety boat. Along with a group of African and Arab migrants, they are risking all they have to cross the stormy Straits.

Pétrole ! Pétrole !

Le PDG d'une importante société pétrolière voit ses manoeuvres illicites déjouées par un jeune concurrent dont la femme n'est autre que la fille de son fournisseur arabe.

L'Idole Des Jeunes

A musical fresco retracing the lives of singers of the 60s. Killi-Watch and Surprise-partie retrace the musical epic of the variety singers of the 60s. Music hall show with playback.

Dialogues of the Exiles

Chilean exiles in Paris discuss the problems facing them. They kidnap and attempt to re-educate a touring singer from their fatherland.

The Ambassadors

“Each of you is an ambassador, and we are sure that each of you will be the best ambassador of our country.” This is how the film begins; a speech to emigrant workers for France. Salah left his three sisters and his mother to become an ambassador, going to work on a Defense site, wading in the mud, he works with a jackhammer. Salah wanders in search of work and housing. Coming up against racism from the owners claiming the respectability of the building and the good neighborhood, he finds himself in a hotel in the Goutte d'Or district. The body of Mehdi, friend of Salah, was found in the Canal Saint-Martin, murdered by a fascist commando, and Ali died of a bullet, killed by a racist janitor. Faced with crimes that remain unpunished, Salah and his friends organize, unite with the French working class to defend their lives and their right to work.

Les transplantés

A right-wing family decides to exile themselves to Europe after Salvador Allende's victory during the presidential elections of 1970; only to find themselves losing their comfortable socio-economic status and be subjected to a dramatic proletarianization that will lead them to all kinds of struggles.

The Big Departure

This is the only feature directed by the famed French painter and sculptor Martial Raysse. In keeping with the revolutionary spirit of the time, the movie has no plot to speak of and appears to have been largely made up on the spot. We follow the cat man into a bizarre fantasy universe presented in negative exposure that reverses color values (black is white and vice versa) and written words. The cat man steals a car and then picks up a young girl he promises to take to “Heaven.” Heaven turns out to be a country chateau inhabited by several more animal mask wearing weirdoes...