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Original name: Soula
English name: Soula
Year: 2021
Run time: 92 mins
Language: Algerian Arabic
Type (Colour/ Black & white): Colour
Country: France, Algeria
Director: Salah Issaad
Producers: Salah Issaad, Taqiyeddine Issaad, Abdelghafour Issaad, Franck Sottiaux
Cast: Soula Bahri, Idir Beinaibouche, Franck Yvari
Screenplay: Salah Issaad, Soula Bahri
Cinematographer: Arthur Fanget
Editor: Salah Issaad
Sound Designer: onas Braasch, Marco Pascal, Alexandre Perrier
Music Composer: Nicolas Montainge
Production Company: Issaad Film Productions
World Sales: MAD Films
Salah Issaad is an Algerian director. After receiving a bachelor's degree in Letters and Foreign languages in 2008, he joined the Law school of Batna in Algeria. He moved to France to complete his film studies at the University of Paris VIII. Afterward, he joined the ARFIS audiovisual school in Lyon, then he ended up joining the Factory School in Villeurbanne, where he obtained his Cinema director diploma. Salah directed a feature film and several short films, where his passion motivates him to tell stories that appreciate human relationships. He likes to explore different narrative forms and film genres like drama, tragedy, stories inspired by real events, as well as comedies.
Soula, a young single mother, is rejected by her family in the name of honour. Having nowhere to go when her father throws her out of her home, she calls upon many friends and relatives for help. As she embarks on a tumultuous 14-hour long journey, Soula’s sole goal is to spare her baby daughter her pain and struggles. But everything and everyone around her represents a potential threat and the line is often blurry between those who want to help her and those who pull her further into a spiral of violence. From Batna to Annaba, the young woman hops from one car to another swaying in between moments of exhilarating relief and banality with friends and moments of great angst and solitude. Against a backdrop of soothing landscapes, in a dystopic yet breath-taking road trip, Soula heads towards her inevitable destiny.
