The Cinema of Djouhra Abouda and Alain Bonnamy

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Image courtesy of CCCB

A portrait of the life of Algerian immigrants in Paris, Ali au pays de merveilles is a legendary work of avant-garde essayist cinema that has been out of circulation for many years but has now been restored by Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. Experiences of oppression, misery and racism are filmed by means of energetic clashes between images and sounds in a musical montage that composes a radical form of urban symphony: the city as a place of exploitation and biopolitical violence.

The creative couple made up of Djouhra Abouda, a singer, and Alain Bonnamy, a painter, was part of the founding group of the Paris Film Coop. Their first two short films entered the canon established by Peter Kubelka in Une histoire de cinéma at the Pompidou, but Ali au pays de merveilles was rejected for its so-called "aesthetic deviationism.” Today, the cinema of Abouda and Bonnamy emerges with a force all its own, harmonizing ideological and sensorial exploration.

The films Algérie couleurs and Ciné Cité, both creations of Abouda and Bonnamy, will also be screened. The screening will be held in French, the original language of the film.

For more events check our online events calendar.