The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua

I talk, talk, talk. I don't want anyone to see me. I don't want you to see me as I am, declares Lila, returning to Algeria after 15 years of war. This opening scene features her emancipatory monologue, a blend of recitation and song, as her husband silently observes. Music isn't just a backdrop in this film; it emerges as a key character. Nouba, a five-part form of vocal poetry from Andalusia, is beloved across the Maghreb for its diverse scales and moods. It's fitting, then, that the film pays homage to composer-folklorist Béla Bartók and Zoulikha Oudai, a revolutionary figure at the dawn of Algeria's independence movement, who led mountain guerrillas before her capture and execution by colonial forces. Lila's story of resistance could metaphorically be that of Oudai’s daughter. The director of The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua elegantly intertwines documentary, memory, and dream, traversing different times and conventions. André Bazin, in his seminal text for the New Wave, envisioned a camera as a pen for personal expression. Assia Djebar, both a poet and director, realizes this vision in her work, arguably surpassing her Parisian contemporaries in translating these ideas to celluloid.