Montreal, White City
The holiday season comes with a tradition of heartwarming stories. Cinema has long embraced these tales once shared by the fireside, sometimes transforming them. This program brings together a selection of such films, highlighting various approaches and celebrating Quebecois narratives.
Presented by the filmmaker
In Montreal, one evening when Christmas has fallen during Ramadan, the Muslim fast, the paths of two Algerians cross momentarily, resurrecting a past they thought was long buried. Amokrane, a taxi driver, has fled his home and the festivities on the grounds that it will be a profitable night to work. He picks up Kahina, slightly disoriented professional who is attempting to contact her ex-husband to collect her daughter. Amokrane recognizes Kahina as his idol, a former pop star in Algeria, who he thought was dead. This sets the stage for the collision of their personal dramas and their solitudes. Through the rear view mirror, Algeria surfaces, reaching into the silence in a procession of shadows and sorrows believed to be buried under the Montreal snow.
Bachir Bensaddek
Bachir Bensaddek is a Canadian television director of Algerian Berber descent, best known for his co-direction of 2002 Emmy Award-winning TV series Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within. Born in Algeria in 1972, Bensaddek came to Montreal in 1992 as a student before immigrating to Canada. Bensaddek wrote a play in 2004 entitled Montréal la blanche about Algerian immigrants in Quebec. He adapted his play for the big screen in 2016.
