Bienvenue à Madagascar

When you return to a spot you have been in the past, it always looks smaller or larger, freer or more boring than it did before. Time distorts memory. But according to Franssou Prenant, everything in Algiers is still the same, apart from possibly the colour of the fence, which has changed from blue to grey from lack of paint. It soon becomes clear that her picture of the city where she lived for a few years as an ambassador's wife is far from unambiguous. Her memories, told in a voiceover, become intertwined with those of others. Twenty voices - different accents, pitches, ages - talk about the struggle for independence, the relations between peoples, and the advance of Islam.
Welcome to Madagascar is a polyphonic diary that sketches a picture of past life in Algeria's capital. The use of super8 film emphasises that feeling. The coarse grain and the warm colours are both intimate and intense, as if annotations.