Rome Rather Than You

Algeria, France, 2006, 111 min, Feature

Directed by: Tariq Teguie
Starring: Samira Kaddour, Rachid Amrani
Language: Arabic with English subtitles

Festivals & Awards: Venice 2006 – official selection

In a time when Algeria has been consumed by warfare and strife for more than a decade, a man who longs to return to the peaceful streets of Rome takes his girlfriend on a desperate quest to procure the papers that will allow the pair to seek out a brighter future. With gunfire echoing in his ears, Kamel longs to leave Algeria behind and return to Italy, where he used to bake pizzas for a living. But Kamel doesn't want to go to Italy alone, he desperately wants to bring his loyal girlfriend Zina along on the journey as well. Having grown up in a country where violence in the streets is an everyday occurrence, Kamel and Zina calmly make their way out of the city and into the eerily quiet suburbs in hopes of locating the immigrant smuggler who can successfully usher them out of the country. Though the streets are a virtual maze of dead ends and danger seems to lurk just around every corner, the optimistic couple somehow manages to turn their potentially grim journey into something resembling an adventurous vacation.

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