Tahia Ya Didou !(1971)
Originally commissioned by the city of Algiers to promote tourism, Mohamed Zinetâs Tahia ya Didou blends documentary with fiction to create a poetic, acerbic and rapturous portrait of the directorâs native city. The camera travels freely, through the port, market, streets and cafĂ©s, capturing everyday people, some of whom recur frequently enough to seem like protagonists. The nominal plotline follows a French tourist coupleâs leisurely visit to the city, the man having previously served in the army during the Algerian war. As they walk around, his comments betray his mindsetâs racist colonial prejudices, while his wife reiterates asinine clichĂ©s. Their unhurried wandering is interrupted when he comes across a blind man and realises that he tortured him during his army service. The film is punctuated with punchy sequences that show a poet named Momo delivering verse as an elegy for Algiers.
