

A kidnapped girl. Two broken investigators. Algiers doesn't forgive its secrets.
The kidnapping of a little girl creates tension and suspicion in Algiers. Only Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist, and Sami, a police inspector, can unearth the demons of the past.
Acting
Medjkane's controlled fury masks oceans of grief.
Cinematography
Algiers itself becomes a suffocating character.
Direction
Taleb-Bendiab trusts silence more than exposition.

Director
Chakib Taleb-Bendiab
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Filmed during Algeria's 2024 heat emergency, real sweat and desperation permeate every frame.
Taleb-Bendiab modeled Dounia partially on his own sister, a psychiatrist who treated civil war survivors—her methods of 'therapeutic confrontation' appear in the interrogation scenes.