Investigating paradise
Original title: Tahqiq fel djenna
Director: Merzak Allouache
Screenplay: Merzak Allouache, Bahia Allouache
Genre: Featured documentary
Casting: Salima Abada, Younès Sabeur Cherif...
Interviewees: Kamel Daoud, Hamida Aït-el-Hadj, Souad Asla, Mahmoud Boudarène, Aouicha Bekhti, Boualem Sansal, Maïssa Bey, Biyouna...
Duration: 135 minutes
Year of production: 2017
Synopsis: Nedjma, a young investigative journalist for an Algerian daily, is spurred to action by the ongoing instrumentalisation of the concept of paradise in extremist propaganda and calls to djihad by Middle Eastern Salafist preachers ever-present on the Internet. She decides to investigate the place of paradise in the Muslim imagination. Assisted by Mustapha, her colleague, she criss-crosses Algeria in search of a panoply of opinions, young and old, male and female, intellectual and street-smart.
Festivals and awards: FIPA, Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels, Biarritz, France / Fipa d’Or du Documentaire de Création / Prix Télérama du meilleur documentaire - Berlinale, PANORAMA, Festival International du Film de Berlin, Allemagne / Panorama Prix du Jury Œcuménique - LAFF, Luxor African Film Festival, Louxor, Egypte - Oslo Arab Film Days, Norvège - Festival Cinéma Arabe aux Pays-Bas, Amsterdam - FCAT, Festival de Cinéma Africain, Tarifa et Tanger Espagne et Maroc - Zawya Arab Films Showcase, Le Caire, Egypte - Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, Varsovie, Pologne - Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle, Etats- Unis - Étonnants Voyageurs, Saint-Malo, France...
