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| STORY
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| Merzak ALLOUACHE - Director
" After my previous film BAB-EL-QUED CITY, my return to Algiers was temporarily impossible. All the same, the desire to make a film remained intense. I felt a need to continue showing Algeria in every way. In France, through daily discussions instigated by myself, I discovered how difficult it is for the French to understand the incredible distance separating brothers, the cousins living on either side of the Mediterranean. SALUT COUSIN! is something of a respite for me, closer to comedy than drama, which, nonetheless, is always close by. The excitement of the film was the continual coming-and-going between Algeria and France. Telling a story about there and here, bringing together French and Algerian actors, professionals and amateurs, giving freedom to my camera. " - Merzak ALLOUACHE, Director TOP |
| Pierre AIM - D.O.P. Pierre AIM is one of the leading French D.O.P.s. He was internationally acclaimed working with the Director Mathieu KASSOVITZ. For the photography in the film LA HAINE, Aim was awarded with the Special Diploma by the Jury at the last years' FILM CAMERA FESTIVAL "MANAKI BROTHERS" in Bitola. His latest film as D.O.P. is ASSASIN(S) also directed by Kassovitz, screened in the competition of the 50th Cannes Film Festival. TOP |
Country Mouse, Alilo, disembarks
from Algiers, eyes wide with wonder, intending to carry
on his petty trafficking. Town Mouse, Mok, his cousin,
pure second generation and Parisian to the tips of his
toes, welcomes him. Alilo loses his contact address, and
a week-long chase ensues to find the notorious suitcase,
which he must absolutely take back to Algiers. During
this enforced stay, the perpetual astonishment of the
country Mouse reveals the suffocating imprisonment of the
Algerian society, whereas the thousand-and-one antics of
the town Mouse to survive shows the extreme harshness of
life in Paris. 
Born 6 October 1944 in Algiers,
Algeria. Allouache studied cinema at L'IDHEC , receiving
his director's diploma in 1967. He returned to Algeria in
1971 and worked for the Ministry of Culture, organizing
the use of film in the campaign for the "Agrarian
revolution". He directed two short documentaries.
His first feature in 1976, OMAR GATLATO, was described by
French critics as a declaration of a new Algerian Cinema.
In contrast to the documentary style of OMAR GATLATO,
Allouache's second film LES AVENTURES D'UN HEROS (1977)
was a picturesque fantasy, which he described as a sort
of A 1001 NIGHTS. His last feature BAB-EL-QUED CITY won
the International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI) at the 1994
Cannes Film Festival. The film was audacious in its
depiction of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in
Algeria and its perils.