Cinema
La Montagne de Baya
Azzedine Meddour · 1997
Synopsis
In Kabylia, once the last groups of resistance have been dispersed, a village driven from its lands takes refuge on an arid mountain. Baya, daughter of the community's spiritual guide, sees her husband killed by Saïd, the bachagha's son, who had once loved her. To wipe out the crime, the young widow is handed a purse of gold louis, the ddiya, the blood price paid. The peasants would like this sum to pay the war tax and recover their lands. She refuses.
Context
Shot in Kabyle in the heights of the Djurdjura, with performers mostly taken from the locality, the film had its financing completed by a subscription among Kabyles in Algeria and elsewhere, the state no longer paying anything. The shoot was long and dangerous, and an accident cost the life of a stuntwoman, which Libération reported. The peasants in the film carry up thousands of barrels of fertile earth to awaken a barren mountain, and the fable speaks as much to the Algeria of its day as to the century it recounts. Djamila Amzal plays the role of Baya.
Who it is for
Nearly two hours, in Kabyle with subtitles. One needs to know that the story advances in long stages, like a legend, and to know the ddiya in order to understand the heroine's refusal.
Prizes and reception
Official selection at the Venice Film Festival in 1997; regarded as one of the finest films of Algerian cinema and of Kabyle cinema.