Divine Wind

Twenty-something Amine and Nour, who’s a little older, are strangers when they first meet, preparing for an attack. Nour is determined to carry out the attack and become a martyr. She is the one who is in control. But her inexperienced accomplice starts to have his doubts about the attack on a nearby oil refinery. As the two of them prepare for the attack, they each learn in their own way how to deal with the existential questions this throws up. During the night before the dangerous action, Nour plays her last trump card.

Merzak Allouache, who in his documentary Enquête au paradis (2017) interviewed Muslims about their views on paradise, seems to have elaborated on this theme in this lucid drama, shot in high-contrast black-and-white. The absence of background music makes escape all but impossible; the soft, intensely hypnotic sound of murmured prayer is interspersed with that of the eternal, eerie desert wind.