Samia (2000)
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33% of users liked it
(23 ratings)
Samia (Lynda Benahouda), an Algerian teenager, has immigrated with her large family to the Southern French town of Marseilles, where she must cope on a daily basis with both racism and her family's own restrictions on her personal freedom. She gets a particularly hard time from her older brother… More Samia (Lynda Benahouda), an Algerian teenager, has immigrated with her large family to the Southern French town of Marseilles, where she must cope on a daily basis with both racism and her family's own restrictions on her personal freedom. She gets a particularly hard time from her older brother ,Yacine (Mohamed Chaouch), who has decided to make himself the unwelcome -- and violent -- protector of Samia's moral and physical virtue. Yacine grows even more unreasonable after Samia's father is hospitalized and it becomes apparent that Samia's sister Amel (Madia El Koutei) is in a relationship with a French boy. Under so much pressure from her family, Samia becomes increasingly rebellious. She refuses to be passively servile -- hanging out with a freewheeling girlfriend, flirting with a boy who wants to date her -- and when her suspicious family forces her to go to a gynecologist to establish her virginity, Samia takes action, rebelling in such a way that nothing will ever be the same again. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Directed By
- Phillippe Faucon
- Written By
- Philippe Faucon, Soraya Nini
- Genres
- Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Mar 1, 2001 Limited
Critic Reviews
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Leighton Klein, Boston Globe
A bracing lesson in the limits of cultural assimilation and mutual comprehension.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
There was nothing fresh or particularly interesting in this human interest drama, but at least it was sincere and moving and unpretentious.
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Joshua Tanzer, Offoffoff
The girls are actual teenagers, one of whom is about to have her first baby. The men are real immigrant laborers, and the weary-looking mom is in fact a mother of eight. Their natural, anguished and passionate performances are astounding.
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Keith H. Brown, Eye for Film
Though not very original, this unpretentious, well-intentioned drama from Phillippe Faucon deals with its potentially difficult subject seriously, honestly and even handedly.
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