Barakat! (2006)

Djamila Sahraoui's film Barakat! might be marred by a number of flaws, but regardless of that, it was a beautiful film about two women with two different perspectives on Algerian history. A doctor finds that her journalist husband is missing. It's the 1990's and Algeria is stricken by civil war. The doctor's friend, who is a nurse, joins her in the quest to find the husband. Barakat! is a brave movie about, among other things, the male gaze. It does not make any essentialist point about "Algerian woman". Instead, it focuses on differences. What I find less satisfying is how the political questions are unraveled. Or is this hunch rather a consequence of my very limited knowledge about Algerian history and political structures?