MADAME COURAGE

Credits

Name: MADAME COURAGE

Country: Algerien; Frankreich

Year of publication: 2015

Format: DCP

Color: color

Language : OF m. engl. UT

Duration: 89 Minuten

Direction: Allouache, Merzak

Screenplay: Allouache, Merzak

Camera: Guerbois, Olivier

Abstract

Courage and invincibility – or at least the illusion thereof - is what the psychiatric medication "artane" promises. And young Algerians like to take the drug they call "Madame Courage" regularly. The abandoned and lonesome teenager Omar in the Algerian port city of Mostaganem is addicted to it. For money, he mugs young women and steals their jewellery and handbags. When out on one of his forays, he meets Selma and falls in love with her, but Selma’s brother forbids her from hanging around with a petty criminal and junkie. But Omar stays cool and waits...
MADAME COURAGE is a moving social portrait of a generation of Algerian adolescents who are invariably unemployed and have a lack of future prospects, and who are always on the lookout for an outlet for their emotions and energies. Merzak Allouache is one of the highest-regarded directors of Algerian origin. His feature films, documentaries and short films have been screened and won prizes at festivals all over the world, including MADAME COURAGE, which has already won awards in Tunis, Tehran, Montreal, Milan, Verona and Brussels. His feature film EL TAAIB about an Islamic outcast was screened in Cologne in 2013.