30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Samir is a young Algerian who lives by smuggling, transporting cans of oil over the frontier on the back of a mule. The daily dance on the border between Algeria and Morocco is a metaphor for the continual evolution of opposing feelings, along with fear of the unknown and the desire to escape to a better life, which the youth recounts in a soft voice, at night, smoking and reflecting before the fire. The inertia and uncertainty make Samir a kind of alter ego to Mohamed Ouzine, the film's director who emigrated years ago to France and an uncle of the protagonist. Through his nephew he relives his own doubts and conflictual relationship with his roots. Accompanying the interior voyage of both men are the poetic images of arid, rocky landscapes, flooded by brilliant sunlight, which contrast with the deep black of the night in which we barely recognise the shapes of the figures illuminated by the glow of the fire. 

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  Mohamed Ouzine

  An Algerian documentarist, Ouzine lives and works in France. After his first documentaries, with Samir dans la poussière he participated in numerous international festivals,  earning prestigious prizes including the special mention for the most innovative medium-length film at  Visions du Réel, the Oasis d'Argent at the Arab film festival in Gebès (Tunisia) and the Grand Prix at the festival of trans-Saharan film in Zagora (Morocco).