Screen International invites you to a virtual FYC screening for the film Heliopolis

Official submission | Algeria

This screening is open to awards voters and industry professionals and will be available for 24 hours after the start time.

Heliopolis (Algeria) – Dec 8, 3pm UK time

Heliopolis has been selected for a second time to represent Algeria, after it was submitted but then withdrawn by the Algerian Oscar committee last year, owing to the Covid pandemic preventing it from screening.

The film is set in Heliopolis, a colonial village built on fertile lands in the East, where the Zenati live in their large farm. Si Mokdad raises his children, Mahfoud and Nedjma, between Muslim and Western values, dreaming of seeing them play an important part in the "French Algeria" in which he believes. But when the Second World War breaks out, this delicate balance gives way to a new vision of a more complicated Algeria.

It is the first feature to be directed by Gacem, who has previously made his name in TV.