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A journey to unravel love in past and contemporary Algeria by exploring the unique phenomenon of a Bollywood film that swept the country in the 1980s.

In Algeria in the mid-1980s, during a period of intense political and social unrest, the Bollywood film ‘Janitou’ became an unexpected overnight sensation throughout the country. It tells the timeless story of young lovers torn apart by the bigotry of their families and society at large. While the film has become lodged in Algerian popular culture, this documentary is a journey to unravel this unlikely but intimate connection between two distinct cultures, a truthful tribute to cinema, and an Algerian man’s personal quest to discover what love and repression are in past and contemporary Algeria.

Credits

Director
Mohamed El Amine Hattou
Screenwriter
Mohamed El Amine Hattou
Producer
Boualem Ziani, Thomas Kaske
Production Company
Molly Aida Film

About the Director

Amine Hattou
Amine Hattou is, an Algerian independent filmmaker. He graduated from the Journalism Institute of Algiers in 2000. In 2009 he was selected to take part in the documentary summer university of "La fémis" in Paris (France) where he wrote and directed his first short documentary. In April 2011, he directed a short fiction called “Down to earth” which was selected to many film festivals.
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