Stimulating cinema: Rachida

Director: Yamina Bachir-Chouikh
Year: 2002

When did the killing start? When will it end? Whose to blame?

It's that never ending circle of violence that frames "Rachida," an affecting and powerful film made by the female Algerian director, Yamina Bachir-Chouikh. This is notable, of course, in that the film centers heavily on women's issues in 1990s Algeria. Weighty concerns such as the pressure on divorced women to hide their faces in shame and the impossibility of marriage for girls who are raped by their kidnappers are central themes in the film. But the overriding concern for all involved is terrorism

Rachida (Djouadi Ibtessem) is an impossibly beautiful young schoolteacher living in the Algerian capital of Algiers. I am speculating on this, but I think when casting the movie, first-time director Bachir-Chouikh found the most beautiful actress she could to play the title role. Rachida is like an angel amidst the rubble that surrounds, a flower who has managed to sprout up from among the cracks.

Rachida lives with her divorced mom and enjoys a normal existence. She is a modern woman, enjoying music on her headphones, while foregoing the hijab. She's also engaged and (how novel!) it's to a man of her own choosing. One day on the way to school, she's accosted by a group of Islamist fundamentalist thugs. One of them is Sofiane, a former student. Sofiane wants her to carry a bomb to the school and when Rachida categorically refuses, she's shot at point-blank range.

A colleague shepherds Rachida and her mom to a remote mountain village, where she can recover safely (well, at least more safely) with less fear of reprisals. There, Rachida begins the long road back to normalcy. Her mother, though marked with the stigma of being divorced, is an incredibly strong woman, unwavering in her faith and her devotion to her daughter. With her support, Rachida, who is exhibiting signs of post traumatic stress disorder, gets a new job teaching at the village school.

But even here in the sticks, violence is never far away. Alliances are ambiguous and perhaps the director even meant it to be that way. It doesn't even matter who started what or who is to blame. The body count piles up and women like Rachida are left to pick up the pieces, with the frightened children of the village both scarred by what has occurred and representative of a better future.

This film is both extremely sad and hopeful. There are several memorable characters--like the old man who stands up to the thugs, eventually paying the ultimate price and the lovestruck young man who uses all his spare change to phone the girl he loves, who is (forcibly) engaged to someone else. His is the most resonant line in the movie: "Each coin is a dream--only the nightmare is free in this country." But the strongest, most able characters are the women, from Rachida, to her mom, to the little girl in Rachida's class whose father is a terrorist and who dreams of going to the moon. Perhaps there, things will be different, better. But here on earth--and in places like 1990s Algeria--humanity continues to act most inhumane.