Mark Reviews Movies: PAPICHA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 28, 2020

Men who don't know Nedjma (Lyna Khoudri), a university student in Algiers during the late 1990s, call her "papicha." It's a term for a pretty girl, used in Papicha by men trying to get her attention and more. A man on a bus follows her, using that word to talk to her, as does a random guy on the street. The university gatekeeper, whom Nedjma and her best friend pay to let them leave school grounds to go to a local dance club, uses it, too, and he wants more from her than money.

Writer/director Mounia Meddour's film is about Nedjma, an aspiring fashion designer, as she navigates a world filled with men who don't know her but still expect certain things from her. There are those strangers and the creepy gatekeeper, and there's also Mehdi (Yasin Houicha), a guy she meets at the club, who seems to support her dream to design clothes—until it gets in the way of his own plans.

The most significant expectations, though, come from a terrorist group, bombing and slaughtering people in the name of establishing a fundamentalist Islamic regime in Algeria. Meddour's story is set at the height of these attacks during the Algerian Civil War. While Nedjma's initial encounters with the group consist of posters encouraging women to wear hijabs and news reports of various attacks, one scene, a shocking and unexpected moment of violence, makes it personal for our protagonist.

Meddour's narrative is a bit unfocused, moving between the friendship between Nedjma and Wassila (Shirine Boutella), their close group of friends trying to put together a fashion show (In an act of rebellion against the fundamentalist group's aims, Nedjma plans to create fashion using only the traditional haik), and the protagonist's relationship with Mehdi (as well as Wassila seemingly changing to suit her new boyfriend). As a result, the storytelling does lose a clear through line, because Meddour (making her narrative feature debut) has so much to say about the time, the place, and the people involved.

Papicha casts a wide narrative net, meaning it's inevitable that Meddour will lose track of or miss out on the story's full range of promise and possibilities. Still, the film's thematic impact—about how these women, especially Nedjma, maneuver through a divided world, in which neither side allows them a full sense of freedom or autonomy—is strong.

Note: Papicha is available from Distrib Films US through a virtual theatrical experience with Vimeo. You can rent the film for home viewing, and half of the net proceeds will support your local independent theater (e.g., the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago). For more information and to purchase access to the film, click here. Participating theaters are available on the page.

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