If Fog Had Roots

A distant shore. A boat arrives. Someone singing in the distance. In a few shots the film exposes its thesis: A trip from one mediterranean shore to the other side. The trip from Axelle, arrived in 1962 as a young teacher after the independency of Algeria. From one shore to the other, and from one time to another. A tribute to the friendship of Ali, recently deceased. Loyalty to ideals and Independence. Loyalty to the people that dreamed it and that earned it.

First documentary of Dounia Bouvet-Wolteche, Les Racies du Brouillard offers rich super 8 textures in black and white. It takes the spectator from Alger to Tizi-Ouzou, to Ali's house. A story told in three voices (Axelle, Ali and Dounia, the filmmaker) remembering politically charged conversations, imprisonment and even death penalty. But leaving melancholy aside, the film looks for the source of the mist. That is, looking for the impossible to avoid being engulfed in resignation.