Inland

With his second feature, after Rome Rather Than You (2006), Tariq Teguia proves himself to be the most important new director in Algeria. The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival while still in digital form. In Inland, he links two important causes of alienation: the influence of terror on local populations and the migration of men without prospects.
The intriguing protagonist is the topographer Malek, who takes on a surveying job in a remote region of Algeria. He moves into a sober base camp in the desert and is viewed suspiciously by the local population and the authorities. His isolated position improves slightly when he finds a friend among the farmers, who have returned to their village after being chased away by Islamic fundamentalists. Yet his position is vulnerable and the surroundings are dangerous thanks to the many minefields.
Teguia creates a sharp contrast between Malek's former urban intellectual surroundings and the barren, unpredictable Sahara, where silence predominates. When explosions are suddenly heard at night, Malek discovers he is not the only stranger. An African woman flees to his hut. Malek decides to help her, but she chooses an unusual route. Teguia films sparsely, hard and yet not heartlessly, with a firm hand. He strips human adventures of romance. Reduced to the core, they become grand, lonely odysseys. (GT)