campusKino@AHH

PAPICHA
Directed by Mounia Meddour

France/Algeria, 2019, 106 min, OmeU

THU 12.06.2025, 6.30 pm
Campus Innrain, Ágnes-Hel­ler-Haus, kleiner Hörsaal

The Transferstelle in cooperation with the Unit for Peace and Conflict Studies present their first campusKino@AgnesHellerHaus. We screen the film

PAPICHA

Directed by Mounia Meddour, France/Algeria, 2019, 106 min, Algerian Arabic and French - Original with EN subtitles

Papicha is a 2019 Algerian drama that follows Nedjma, a young university student in 1990s Algiers, who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Amid rising fundamentalism and political unrest, she resists oppression by organizing a fashion show as an act of defiance.

Moderator and Discussant after the film is Samia Taboudoucht (Student of the MA Programme Peace and Conflict Studies).

An event within the framework of the project 'South-North Dialogues on Peace and Conflict' with the kind support of the State of Tyrol (Entwicklungspolitische Informationsarbeit und Bewusstseinsbildung).

This event is also organized as part of the Buddy Mentoring Program at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Thanks a lot to all interested parties and to the contributors, and to all supporting colleagues for their participation and engagement.

Günter Scheide, Transferstelle Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft-Gesellschaft

Logo Land Tirol

campusKino Poster campusKino@uibk Anfahrt

Contributors (Partner)

Unit for Peace and Conflict Studies | Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (Land Tirol)| Transferstelle Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft-Gesellschaft

Synopsis and Historical Context

Algeria, 1990s. Nedjma, an 18 year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War to keep her from experiencing a normal life and going out at night with her friend Wassila. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to fight for her freedom and independence by putting on a fashion show.

What is referred to as the “Algerian civil war”, or the “black decade”, is the conflict that arose between the Algerian government and different armed Islamist groups starting in 1991. When it ended, there were over 150,000 dead, several thousands exiled, and one million displaced. Historically, this conflict has been traced back to the economic struggles at the end of the 80s that were linked to the drop in the price of oil – the country’s main resource. In October 1988, demonstrations began, calling for better living conditions and democratic openness. The FLN, a single party government, consented, and several new parties were created. In December 1991, the Islamic Salvation Front (ISF) was on the verge of winning the parliamentary elections. Its goal: to establish an Islamic regime.

The powers that be responded by cancelling the second round of parliamentary elections and banning the FIS. However, from its ruins arose the Armed Islamic Movement (AIM), which later transformed into the Armed Islamic Group (AIG) and the Islamic Salvation Army (ISA). These two groups terrorized the civilian population with assassinations and kidnappings – all while fighting between themselves. Fear deeply transformed the mores of Algerian society.

The escalation in violence peaked in 1997 with the massacres carried out by the GIA in Raïs in August, and in Bentalha in September. This strategy of carrying out massacres divided the GIA at its very core, and some of its members left to form the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC) that would eventually become the future Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s election to the presidency in 1999 marked the end of the conflict: laws were enacted that granted amnesty to GIA fighters as well as the military, having responded to the violence with violence. For a long time, Bouteflika would conjure the ghost of civil war, declaring himself the sole bastion against disorder in Algeria.

Master’s Programme Peace and Conflict Studies

Distributor

Papicha Movie Poster
Papicha Poster Campuskino
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