I Still Hide to Smoke (2016) Movie Script
I'm Samia
daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid.
I'm 29 and a half
and still not married.
I don't strike my head
like my mother 'amen I'm sad...
I go out on the terrace
and I look at the sea.
My mother forbids me
to go on the terrace.
What will the neighbors say?
So I like to do the laundry,
that way
I hang it out...
The neighbors say nothing,
my mother is happy,
and I...
I go dream with the sea...
Sometimes
there's a giant seagull,
full of fish
still live in his stomach.
And I think of my brother
and so many young men
in the bellies of boats
seeking the horizon...
From my terrace,
I look at other terraces
and the laundry hanging.
The water's back!
At the end of each shortage
we're so happy!
And there are many shortages.
We don't just lack water,
but also coffee, oil,
sugar,
potatoes,
love.
Above all, love...
Bye Baya.
See you tomorrow.
At My Age, I Still Hide To Smoke.
It wasn't an ordinary dream.
Maybe
a message from God.
I was on an island.
There were olive trees
and yellow melons
stretching out of sight.
The sea sparkled.
Suddenly...
Fatima!
I saw a man,
a real one.
In a boat
rowing towards me.
His scent on the wind.
A strong scent?
Virile!
His torso,
naked, hairy,
his muscled arms.
- Tarzan?
- No he was wearing glasses.
- Dazzled by your beauty.
- Reading glasses.
Look at the pool, he's rowing
broom in the melons.
Poor thing, dropped his glasses.
Give me a cigarette,
they say it's calming.
Only whores smoke.
Scrub, it stinks.
Why not in the toilets?
Here it smells of woman
they jerk off in a second.
I wouldn't like a guy to jerk off
thinking of me.
No risk there
they don't like me.
They'd jerk off for a fly.
I'm not a fly.
Skinny enough.
Won't fatten up here.
My mother's idea
so the matchmakers see me.
Masseuses and cleaners
are invisible.
Leila!
...a family of 6
including 3 children killed
by terrorists on the Algiers road...
Dance my girl
your eyes ave tears
love was born before you
and will remain forever.
I love that song
it breaks my heart.
I'll dance to it at my wedding.
A bride doesn't dance.
She's supposed to look sad.
Sad?
So happy to leave my parents,
I'll dance,
dance... till I fly away!
Fly!
I wanted to die
when they took me out of school.
You just go out to your husbands house,
and from there to the grave.
They're not happy now,
it's straight to the grave.
I saw Baya the matchmaker.
She said in France
the men don't like fat women.
Have you seen their women on TV?
Greyhounds.
Baya has someone to many.
Come.
His mother's coming with Baya.
To find him a wife.
Aman?
No, a cockerel!
An expat.
They like broomsticks too.
Does he wear glasses?
Glasses?
Like in my dream.
I told you,
God loves me.
He's supposed to love everyone.
Gad is great!
God is great!
- Open up, Fatima!
- Wait!
Open up!
He wants to kill me!
Who?
My brother!
Don't open!
Get down.
It's 11, Fatima. Open up!
Wait!
Stay here.
The haram is tom,
quick, get a fouta.
Quick, they're waiting!
Go with Samia.
Meriem, come.
Go upstairs.
Quick.
Your shoes?
I'll be back, don't move.
Hello.
Quick, save a place.
I didn't tell you to open!
Wafa.
How are you?
Who swiped the red shoes
in the courtyard?
Today I'm closing at 5!
Boss's orders.
How are you?
How's your niece?
Your husband find work?
What do you think?
God will find it for him.
God is busy, Louisa.
No-one saw you.
Take this off, too hot.
Come here.
Sit down.
Drink.
Babies don't like tears.
Tell me...
Samia!
Louisa!
How are you?
Good. You?
Your mother?
Your father?
And Nacera?
My grocer brother
wants her to stop college
and marry his moron son.
More he prays,
higher the prices.
Takes God for a fool.
Blasphemy!
My daughter
will be free,
even if I
end up in hell.
Go, shoo!
Someone is asking for the boss.
What?
An expat,
honey-colored eyes...
No, nothing!
I'm Mohammed.
I know. The expat.
You work here?
Yes. Samia
daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid.
Tell me, Samia.
Meriem, Zoubida's daughter?
Who caught a belly here?
Go get her.
She doesn't come 'cause
the baby...
ls there a phone here?
Look Samia...
My number.
If you see her,
call me.
Don't tell her anything.
It's a surprise.
Our secret...
Don't forget, call me.
- Where's Fatima?
- She bites.
Hind, lipstick!
I'll do it up.
You look beautiful.
Are you crazy?
I'll bum it!
You're sick!
MY daughter!
Rub.
Hello teacher.
Did my son Ali pass 6th grade?
- Ali what?
- Mohammed Ali.
I think so.
Keltoum! Hows your husband?
And you?
Bad!
Some dumb bitches you wanna...
What's this crowd?
10 days without water.
Bomb at the water tower.
No, no,
on TV
it's "gas leak".
Country runs with blood,
but on TV it's all OK.
Do you know about Meriem?
She had the baby?
No, her brother's dashed from France
yelling he wants to kill her.
Why?
Her belly!
Shouldn't have spread her legs.
What?
No, no...
She got it in the hammam.
Bullshit! She's broken.
Shame on you!
Go on,
Set out!
Where or how'? Fuck that.
No one should touch her, period.
Fatima, that hurts.
Sorry, stress.
Take her to the lady doc
he'll see she's a virgin.
His eyes, crazy.
He's become...
Leave beardless, return bearded.
Go figure...
He hit his mother!
I wanted to call the police,
but she swore
she'd fallen.
Poor woman.
When her husband died,
she sold her jewelry
for his studies in France.
Thank you Fatima, enough.
The thug!
Years with no news,
dashes back to kill his sister
to earn Paradise!
Meriem ran away'...
Aunty,
mom wants two lemonades.
Come, boy.
Fatima!
Is that my fouta at the door?
Shoo!
Leila, do your homework!
Lena, my sweetheart.
I missed you.
Here.
Your boss's fouta?
She's not coming today.
Yuck!
Oh, no!
Fatima, come here.
Leila?
Didn't sleep.
You saw the shrink?
Costs too much.
Hospital checkup in 6 months.
I told you I'd pay.
I love your niece like my own.
We'll see.
She needs an Imam.
With her past
cure her with the Koran?!
Shut up!
She's not deaf.
Look what I found!
There's a gold tooth!
Two! Cool!
I'll make a ring
or earrings.
No, I'll share.
Canine for me, molar for Fatima.
One in silver.
For you, Keltoum?!
One: Not gold, plate.
Two: Not silver, lead.
Three: I know the owner.
How'?
By the smell.
Yuck!
My life's going to change!
God heard me.
Baya found me a husband,
an expat.
His mom's coming with Baya.
The first contractions, my girl.
You don't run pregnant.
I'm scared Fatima.
Of your brother?
Over my dead body.
Of giving birth?
Normal at your age.
The first one's slow.
I have a midwife friend,
discreet.
I'll call her.
We'll go to her house.
If it hurts too much
bite something,
I don't want to hear you.
Don't leave me alone.
They'll suspect something.
I'll be back.
Be brave.
He has honey eyes!
And his name?
An expat!
Shut up!
What's wrong Fatima?
Got my period, OK?
Louisa, come.
What are you waiting for?
Hello...
Mme Djouda, the midwife...
Give me her number.
We got it at home.
I'm at work!
Shit!
- What?
- Come down!
I need 2 sachets for Keltoum.
Go work,
it's busy.
I'll do it.
Shhh, it's OK.
I'm going to get married too.
O women,
open the harem,
the beloved is here.
The party is joy
to the rhythm of the derbouka.
I'm no! Worried,
the bride's beauty will protect her.
Stop!
To your places.
Two sachets?
It's a forest down there.
Not one hair will escape.
For tonight, Keltoum?
I dream of it. I'm burning.
Once every 3 months,
I have spiderwebs down there!
Here, Fatima, please.
Imagine your husband in the Sahara
coming back every 3 months
pay in his pocket.
Should just send the money.
My honeys only staying one night.
They're on strike.
Poor thing...
Poor me!
God heard me,
period ended this morning.
I'll have fun tonight!
My old man, period or not...
Mine thinks it's dirty and impure,
so he takes me from...
Mind your kids!
I fell.
Like Meriem's mother?
What are you looking at?
I was scared of men.
Not scared,
I don't like them.
The idea of someone
touching my pussy
scared me.
Until my wedding night
I thought it was just for peeing.
How old were you?
And your wedding night?
Age 11, a game?
Yes, at the start.
A princess 7 days and 7 nights.
No chores, no blows, I played
and stuffed myself with cake.
The 7th day,
they covered me with jewels.
A gold-embroidered dress,
a silver lame' scarf.
Shut in a room
with white satin sheets
they told me:
Wad' for the man you WM' obey,
your husband, you his wife.
I jumped,
jumped on the spring mattress.
The smell of the bed covers.
Pure sheep wool.
Exhausted, I lay down,
happy with my new life.
He arrived. I knew him.
A friend of my father.
He gave me sweets.
He looked me up and down.
I smiled at him, held out my hand.
This time,
instead of sweets
he dropped his pants.
I run for the door... locked.
I call my father...
My mother crying through the door.
Women laughing.
Men banging the window.
Quick! The sheet! The blood!
I felt his damp hands
on my thighs.
I turned round.
He was standing there,
naked.
He looked at me, moist eyes,
saliva beading on his lips.
I was so afraid
I peed myself.
He threw me down, got on me.
I felt a dagger tearing me
pushing in my wound.
He was so heavy!
I'm burning! Quick! Water!
Burning or not, tonight I'm fucking.
That feels good!
Open the lemonade!
I got my divorce, gins!
My certificate of independence!
- Fatima!
- What?
Open up!
Zahia!
- What Zahia?
- The widow of...
What do you want?
To wash.
I shut at 4.
Make room for her.
What Fatima?
Tell me...
Does your brother know
Zahia, Emirs widow'?
I don't know. Why?
Just asking...
It's nothing.
God Mess.
Sister, do you have shampoo?
Salaam Nadia.
By God, lend me shampoo.
Thank you.
God will return it.
And your sister Souhila?
Not around anymore?
- My best friend at college.
- Gone!
- To France?
- There's not only France.
Inshallah, she'll spread Islam.
My shampoo.
What's up with you?!
Save you from hell.
A shampoo of evildoers.
Excuse me.
Halal or not, as suits you.
- What's up, sister?
- Not your sister.
All believers
are my brothers and sisters.
Your brothers?
Who sprayed me with acid at college
because I was wearing a skin
not your covers.
Yes... for Samia,
daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid,
of the Casbah.
Baya.
Wait!
Bitch!
What?
Baya's not coming.
She doesn't want Samia.
Why?
Because I'm dumb!
Don't tell Samia.
Why did I open my big mouth?
Come down!
Control your brats!
I'm gonna kill someone.
Quick!
Why did you divorce, Nadia?
I loved,
I don't love, I divorce.
Untangle me, I'll tell you about love.
That's knotty...
Conditioner!
Once upon a time
me on the balcony
him in the street.
When I walked to school
he waited
to see me
and smile at me
without speaking
and follow me.
Ten years of silent love
until he asked.
Your wedding night?
I was scared.
He touched me, I cried
for months
despite our families
demanding the sheet.
I was a whore
he was impotent.
But with kisses,
cuddles...
I throw myself at him!
Love exists!
Poor Tarzan
more rowing!
Fatima it feels so good
to tremble under your man
and his caresses...
your body burns
asks for more.
In films.
Your husband's got it wrong.
And yours?
No. But his brother...!
Louisa?
Hind! Oussama!
Fatima! My children!
Yuck!
She doesn't know what it is!
I found it in the toilets.
I thought I'd thrown it away.
Thank you.
Anyway, I'm old.
The man with the sweets,
beat me, I didn't have children.
Then I had six children.
All his brother's.
With the children grown
I lost my fear.
I deprived him to his death.
When the snake gets old
the frog screws him.
I loved my brother-in-law.
Ten years!
Then he left,
France swallowed him up.
He loved me!
Welcome Aicha.
Give me my husband's teeth.
There's one missing.
He must've swallowed it.
Already hard to understand,
one tooth less and he'll...
...lisp.
Tie them
to his neck with string!
I swear, try my coffee
just as you like it.
Why not.
Sugar.
More.
More.
Stop.
Here.
I'll bring it back empty later.
The boss wants you to wait. Important.
Important?
She's found
a place at the asylum
for my brother-in-law.
Her husband knows the director.
The number of madmen is rocketing...
It's true.
He's expensive!
Yesterday I reimbursed the kiosk.
He ate five newspapers
in one go.
With what's in the news,
that was hard to digest!
I'm going.
Stay.
It's on me.
I warned you,
I don't have my purse.
I know...
I want that place.
Move over.
She said move over!
Your belly?
Smile.
You're going to be a mother.
It's fixed.
Is my name Fatima or not?
Did you pick a name?
This is Meriem. You know her.
Don't worry.
No-one will hurt her.
Come.
He wants to play with you.
It's a secret.
I warn you,
I reserve that place!
Gm!
A lemonade.
Masseuse!
My name is Samia.
Whatever.
An orange lemonade.
That's Orangina.
Whatever.
And scrub my back.
You don't like mine?
Listen!
You,
I forbid you to speak to me.
And first,
a divorcee stays at her parents' home.
I knew it.
I smelled it in the house
but I couldn't believe it.
Yes, dear ex-mother-in-law
I smoked
and I will smoke again...
It helped me stand you.
Thank God,
my son spurned you like a...
whore?
Say it.
I remind you I divorced him.
My son is a man.
He snaps his fingers he has ten wives.
Not the same for a divorcee.
Your son a man?
It's true.
Before the marriage
I saw him as big.
After, how he shrunk,
shrunk...
What are you doing
in the men's area?
You'll catch a belly!
You don't get pregnant
by the Holy Spirit.
And the Virgin Mary?
She carried Jesus,
messenger of God.
And Meriem, Zoubida's daughter?
Fairy tales to fool you.
Thank you honey.
My pleasure.
I didn't know about the acid.
Veiled, God would have spared you.
Leave me.
You changed so much.
Drop it.
Why is she looking for my sister?
To have her killed,
like those who write, think
or sing of love?
Does love scare you?
- We only fear God.
- You don't fear God,
you want to be God!
Behind your veils and beards,
all murderers!
The veil protects us from temptation.
And the "bearded ones"
protect us from despots.
Murdered children, despots?
All wars are dirty.
I'll fight against
your Islamic Republic
if I have to ally with the devil!
The truth is,
Nadia started it.
You shut up!
You two,
no more politics in the hammam.
The difference between you two
for men?
None.
You hooded.
You open-top.
Good for fucking the pair of you.
What?
Nothing.
Each of you
just clean your OWN butts!
God damn it!
Fatima, a cigarette.
Speaking like that with Zahia!
Before his execution Djaout wrote:
You speak, you die.
You don! Speak, you die.
So speak, and die.
They'll rape you first.
Why I wear the veil?
They threatened me,
via a pupil, a little brat!
You smoke?
I smoke.
So me too,
for once in my life.
Three times this week!
Samia! Candles!
Come on ladies!
We got soap in my eyes.
Shut up and follow me.
Plenty of Marlboro!
Too expensive.
Dark ones.
For my mother-in-law.
She's coming.
An expat.
Like the French,
they don't like fat women.
Say,
am I beautiful?
From a good family?
Luckily I love you.
I'm leaving for France.
I don't envy the expats.
All they bring back?
Cheap trashy goods.
Don't leave Leila alone.
What's that?
Baya!
And those shoes?
Found in the courtyard.
Baya isn't...
Shit!
Where is this guy from?
From my dream.
Many a stranger?
And love?
Optional?
We got the recipe.
The recipe?
C'mon.
So the recipe?
Every morning
I boil the milk,
make the coffee, put out the biscuits.
I wake him,
dress him,
put on his jacket,
and he goes to work.
I stock up with water.
No water shortage.
Paradise!
I wash at the tap!
Washing, bread, dinner.
His favorite dishes.
Then I shower,
smooth my hair.
Perfume myself everywhere,
ears, neck,
underarms,
breasts, stomach, butt
and I wait in front of the TV.
"The Young and the Restless".
He comes in, I pinch my cheeks.
What?
So they're rosy.
Like makeup.
Tum round.
Take off his jacket, shower him,
Dry him,
give him his pajamas.
You don't help him?
No,
I have to heat dinner.
We eat watching the news.
Men watch news.
And then?
Then...
I slip into the bedroom,
put on my transparent nightgown,
loosen my hair,
get into bed and cough.
You cough?
So he comes!
He lies down next to me,
I wait, then I cough.
Again?
To take the glass of water
I put on his nightstand,
my body touches his,
he smells my perfume,
I close my eyes
he gets on me and...
And they had many children!
You'll spend your life
putting his jacket on
and coughing by night?
And love?
I'm already in love.
A wife can't
refuse a husband's advances.
That's in the Koran.
I love that verse.
The man too.
The more he honors his wife in bed
the greater his place in Paradise.
If he honors her out of bed,
he goes to hell?
I'm going to the toilet.
I fly
like a bird in the sky.
I swim like a fish
a fish in water.
Meriem!
You took your time.
Fatima, the plumber!
I don't want to stew in their dirt.
Yours!
You didn't see Meriem. Understand?
You didn't see her.
Watch Zahia.
If she wants to leave, tell me.
Watch her.
Leila.
Who called?
Fatima...
...El Sunna hammam.
The pipe is blocked.
Yes...
Quick.
Fatima! Oranges.
What's got into you?
I couldn't hold on.
My fault, I didn't think.
Samia saw me.
Not only her...
I'll get you a bucket.
What's that?
Leila!
In the name of God the Merciful...
Allah is unique.
Get off!
You're suffocating her!
Don't touch her!
Quick a key in her hand.
She saw blood.
Stop!
My God, poor child!
Satan possessed her.
Satan?
Satan, the savages
who slit her family's throats?
She's been mute since.
Why does she panic
when you invoke God?
Because when raping her sisters,
and disemboweling her pregnant mother
those monsters
chanted the Koran!
Excuse me.
Fatima!
There's a brunette got up as a bloody.
Pardon?
I meant, how stylish.
Really? Thank you.
What do you want?
And you are?
Fatima, head masseuse.
Delighted, Mme Fatima.
I'm Mme Mouni.
Very classy!
I have a meeting with
Mme Baya, the matchmaker.
You're the expat?
Yes, one might say.
And Zahia?
Baya's not coming, you can leave.
But I have a meeting.
She promised a wife for my son.
Say yes for Samia.
Excuse me.
Pardon?
For your son.
Mme Baya couldn't make it.
Her grandmother died.
I'm sorry.
You take her or not?
She asked Mme Fatima
to find you a real jewel.
What do you do?
Nothing.
Good.
How old are you?
And a half.
That's a little old.
Her parents don't want to lose her.
She's a washing machine.
See these hands?
They do your laundry
winter than white.
And embroidery, knitting, crochet...
Good investment.
And her cooking?
People dream of her cooking.
Tajines!
Her tajines! Chorba,
finger-lickin' good.
Her cakes?
The best makroud in the district,
gazelle horns,
melon jam with olives...
My son loves food.
Men, you gotta
satisfy their stomachs and below.
What is a man?
- A stomach and a dick.
- Right.
And she is...?
Are you insulting me?
Samia, come.
Excuse me, Mme Fatima.
I heard talk of this pregnant gin.
Meriem, I believe.
Watch what you say!
Samia is intact.
Certificate of virginity on delivery.
Good deal. I'll take her.
Samia, kiss your mother-in-law.
Tell me,
do you wear the scarf of God?
Don't annoy me, Madame.
Don't annoy me!
It's my son's condition.
He says our gins
are naked like the French.
Careful,
Mme Fatima will break off the deal.
She will.
I won't find better.
Bravo Mme Mouni.
Very good decision.
Let's enjoy the hammam
with your daughter-in-law.
Let's go celebrate.
Ululations? A wedding?
Listen women...
I haven't found
my husband's gold tooth.
God will punish who stole it.
My God, a man at the door!
Not a man, it's the plumber.
Check out his butt.
Should see my husband's.
Nice equipment up front!
Saucy!
Stop, I'm engaged.
Rub,
my mother-in-law's watching.
She's not.
I'm your client.
Don't laugh...
My God!
It fell nearby!
Nadia!
Did you already feel those things?
What things?
When you
make love.
That's called an orgasm.
And in Arabic?
I don't know.
I think we don't say it.
I already felt it.
Who was the lucky guy?
Are you crazy?
- A lucky girl?
- What?!
Alone, I do it often,
especially before sleeping.
So you're normal.
Because I don't have a husband.
Even married...
You don't regret after?
Doing myself good?
It's a sin.
In hell,
God will poke spines in our pussies
and snakes
will dig tunnels.
Where did you get that?
The Koran.
You read the Koran?
Everyone knows that.
Not the Koran, it's in the Bible.
Lucky we have hands.
Nadia!
I feel like it now.
Not here, Samia!
No, in the toilets...
I swear to God,
I'll stop when I'm married!
Hurry up, I'm closing!
We're not done.
Hurry up!
You said 5.
This hammam has changed.
The water's not hot.
Your friend the boss
sets the temperature.
Making savings off us.
With what her Minister husband
earned...
Stole.
- All corrupt and thieves.
- If you had the power...
Power was stolen from us.
We'll regain it thanks to God.
Thanks to the failings of democracy.
But we'll let go of nothing. Nothing!
Who "We"?
You revolutionaries
at home, or those puppets
of the West
starving and torturing children?
The same children
your husband beheaded.
Don't speak of my husband.
Where were you,
the communists,
when the police forced him to confess
what he didn't know'?
The club. The hose.
The waterboard. The bottle. Rape.
In the same jails,
in the same hands, Zahia.
My father too!
And you know it.
But he didn't become a monster
like your husband.
Blood calls for blood.
I'll teach my son his father
is a martyr in Paradise.
Zahia!
Your husband is just a corpse
eaten by worms
like his victims around him.
There is no Gad but Allah
and Muhammad is his Prophet.
For You we live, for You we die.
You stopped coming to the hammam.
Why today?
She must have seen me at the protest
and followed me here.
She preaches that the hammam is sin,
laughter, sin,
women, sin.
And this Zahia?
Is this a sin?
This is a sin!
Your Islam is not our Islam.
Your Islam is not our Islam.
You bitch tell Meriem to come out!
Meriem! You and your bastard will die!
No man at home,
and she thinks she's free.
From your mother's belly.
VII pull you out and kill you!
I know you hear me, bitch!
Go in!
- What do you want?
- I'm the brother of the adulteress.
Get lost, it's the woman's time.
I want to see her!
She's not here.
I said get lost!
My God!
Don't you recognize me?
I'm Aicha, your neighbor.
Aged nine,
you broke my window
with your catapult.
Remember?
On my son's head,
your sister is not here.
Samia's fault, she doesn't
clean the men's area.
No-one leaves.
You hear me bitch?
He didn't believe me?
This is Aicha again.
I birthed you,
from your mother's stomach.
On your dead father's head,
your sister is not here.
Meriem!
I'll bleed your bastard.
And drink his blood.
It's not a bastard, my son,
she caught it in the hammam.
In your corner.
I'm going home.
Samia, my haik.
Hey! Masseuse.
Masseuse? My Samia?
Why? They told you doctor?
I don't lie, I pray.
Ladies, is Samia a masseuse or not?
Out, sinner!
Shut up you.
Madame doesn't like masseuses?
A masseuse!
What will the French say?!
Masseuse or not,
she'll always be an Arab.
Open your mouth once more,
and I'll throw you out naked.
Where have I landed?
Welcome home, Mme Mouni.
You said free.
Nobody move!
My husband's dinner?
He'll have to manage.
His teeth are here.
A diet won't hurt him.
What hurts him is your sterility.
Why I'm sterile?
The pill!
You're witnesses.
She's murdered my grandchildren.
Give me Meriem or I U'! Cut your throats.
- Not scared of 3 beard hairs!
- All bitches,
daughters of whores!
Asshole!
He called me a whore! Me, Aicha,
daughter of Imam Ben Ali, son of Omar.
Daoud Ben Hassan,
great-nephew of Ibrahim, son of Isaac,
descended from Youssef,
in the line of the Prophet Mohammed
and he calls me a whore?
On the head of my ancestors,
you'll regret the day
I pulled you from your mother's belly.
Long live Algeria!
Fatima, let me vent.
Listen brat, on the head
of my dead father Ben Ali,
if I even sniff your scent here,
you enter a man, you exit a eunuch.
Shave your balls!
He's gone!
The final struggle...
Day of glory...
Don't be scared.
You're giving birth.
I'll be back.
My God,
you said nothing?
Why do that to me?
You made me perjure!
She took refuge here
we're going to help her.
Like it or not,
that's how it is.
You, hurry,
her waters have broken.
Call a doctor!
Go!
Just an assistant.
I studied medicine 4 years.
With your sister Nadia.
So hurry, upstairs!
All stay downstairs!
Keltoum stay with them.
Ululate women!
It's a boy!
Already?
From the shape of her belly.
Oil, quick!
Oil?
Did I say petrol?
Massage oil?
For the passage.
Meriem, is she OK?
Very brave,
and Zahia, a good assistant.
Meriem,
don't be scared.
I'll help you,
you and the baby.
No, my dear.
I'll take him out, I'll care for him,
he'll be the heir
I never had.
And the mother?
No, not all the World's problems.
I'll take them both.
And your husband?
I'll divorce, OK?
Quick, Aicha! She's in pain.
Be brave.
Here's Granny Aicha, Aunty Zahia.
I understand your moods.
You could have told me.
Sorry. Upset...
I can't have a child.
We want to adopt.
And Meriem could keep studying.
My daughter will back her
for a job at the Ministry.
Excuse me,
I can take them to France.
Get them an apartment
in public housing.
And welfare benefits.
Who are you?
Your new Imam, Chams El Dinne.
God is great!
Bring her and I will leave!
I won't touch you.
Give him his sister!
God is great!
I have an idea.
We'll all go out pregnant
like Meriem.
Ulysses!
Like in the movie
under the sheep
to escape the Cyclops.
O women!
Almighty God says in the Koran,
in the name of Merciful God:
And those whose disobedience
you fear,
exhort them, stay far from their beds,
strike them.
But when they obey you,
do not seek a quarrel with them,
for Allah is great and mighty!
Allah knows the truth!
lam the widow of your Emir,
the martyr Mustapha Seif Eddine.
They say the Prophet,
the prayers and
the peace of Allah be with him,
freed a pregnant adulteress:
Go give birth, and wean your babe.
She came back after weaning.
He ordered that
she be buried to chest height
and stoned.
Die my sister,
and go to hell.
Samia!
Samia!
My name was Samia,
Daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid.
I was 29 and a half
and never married.
I didn't strike my head when I was sad.
I went on to the terrace
and I watched the sea.
My mother forbade me
to go on the terrace.
So I liked to do the laundry,
that way.
I hung it out...
my mother was happy,
and I...
I left to dream with the sea...
I can go now...
Free... I fly away
above the waves...
Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
I don't leave alone
I take the headscarves...
all the headscarves...
because I love you
my little Leila.
daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid.
I'm 29 and a half
and still not married.
I don't strike my head
like my mother 'amen I'm sad...
I go out on the terrace
and I look at the sea.
My mother forbids me
to go on the terrace.
What will the neighbors say?
So I like to do the laundry,
that way
I hang it out...
The neighbors say nothing,
my mother is happy,
and I...
I go dream with the sea...
Sometimes
there's a giant seagull,
full of fish
still live in his stomach.
And I think of my brother
and so many young men
in the bellies of boats
seeking the horizon...
From my terrace,
I look at other terraces
and the laundry hanging.
The water's back!
At the end of each shortage
we're so happy!
And there are many shortages.
We don't just lack water,
but also coffee, oil,
sugar,
potatoes,
love.
Above all, love...
Bye Baya.
See you tomorrow.
At My Age, I Still Hide To Smoke.
It wasn't an ordinary dream.
Maybe
a message from God.
I was on an island.
There were olive trees
and yellow melons
stretching out of sight.
The sea sparkled.
Suddenly...
Fatima!
I saw a man,
a real one.
In a boat
rowing towards me.
His scent on the wind.
A strong scent?
Virile!
His torso,
naked, hairy,
his muscled arms.
- Tarzan?
- No he was wearing glasses.
- Dazzled by your beauty.
- Reading glasses.
Look at the pool, he's rowing
broom in the melons.
Poor thing, dropped his glasses.
Give me a cigarette,
they say it's calming.
Only whores smoke.
Scrub, it stinks.
Why not in the toilets?
Here it smells of woman
they jerk off in a second.
I wouldn't like a guy to jerk off
thinking of me.
No risk there
they don't like me.
They'd jerk off for a fly.
I'm not a fly.
Skinny enough.
Won't fatten up here.
My mother's idea
so the matchmakers see me.
Masseuses and cleaners
are invisible.
Leila!
...a family of 6
including 3 children killed
by terrorists on the Algiers road...
Dance my girl
your eyes ave tears
love was born before you
and will remain forever.
I love that song
it breaks my heart.
I'll dance to it at my wedding.
A bride doesn't dance.
She's supposed to look sad.
Sad?
So happy to leave my parents,
I'll dance,
dance... till I fly away!
Fly!
I wanted to die
when they took me out of school.
You just go out to your husbands house,
and from there to the grave.
They're not happy now,
it's straight to the grave.
I saw Baya the matchmaker.
She said in France
the men don't like fat women.
Have you seen their women on TV?
Greyhounds.
Baya has someone to many.
Come.
His mother's coming with Baya.
To find him a wife.
Aman?
No, a cockerel!
An expat.
They like broomsticks too.
Does he wear glasses?
Glasses?
Like in my dream.
I told you,
God loves me.
He's supposed to love everyone.
Gad is great!
God is great!
- Open up, Fatima!
- Wait!
Open up!
He wants to kill me!
Who?
My brother!
Don't open!
Get down.
It's 11, Fatima. Open up!
Wait!
Stay here.
The haram is tom,
quick, get a fouta.
Quick, they're waiting!
Go with Samia.
Meriem, come.
Go upstairs.
Quick.
Your shoes?
I'll be back, don't move.
Hello.
Quick, save a place.
I didn't tell you to open!
Wafa.
How are you?
Who swiped the red shoes
in the courtyard?
Today I'm closing at 5!
Boss's orders.
How are you?
How's your niece?
Your husband find work?
What do you think?
God will find it for him.
God is busy, Louisa.
No-one saw you.
Take this off, too hot.
Come here.
Sit down.
Drink.
Babies don't like tears.
Tell me...
Samia!
Louisa!
How are you?
Good. You?
Your mother?
Your father?
And Nacera?
My grocer brother
wants her to stop college
and marry his moron son.
More he prays,
higher the prices.
Takes God for a fool.
Blasphemy!
My daughter
will be free,
even if I
end up in hell.
Go, shoo!
Someone is asking for the boss.
What?
An expat,
honey-colored eyes...
No, nothing!
I'm Mohammed.
I know. The expat.
You work here?
Yes. Samia
daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid.
Tell me, Samia.
Meriem, Zoubida's daughter?
Who caught a belly here?
Go get her.
She doesn't come 'cause
the baby...
ls there a phone here?
Look Samia...
My number.
If you see her,
call me.
Don't tell her anything.
It's a surprise.
Our secret...
Don't forget, call me.
- Where's Fatima?
- She bites.
Hind, lipstick!
I'll do it up.
You look beautiful.
Are you crazy?
I'll bum it!
You're sick!
MY daughter!
Rub.
Hello teacher.
Did my son Ali pass 6th grade?
- Ali what?
- Mohammed Ali.
I think so.
Keltoum! Hows your husband?
And you?
Bad!
Some dumb bitches you wanna...
What's this crowd?
10 days without water.
Bomb at the water tower.
No, no,
on TV
it's "gas leak".
Country runs with blood,
but on TV it's all OK.
Do you know about Meriem?
She had the baby?
No, her brother's dashed from France
yelling he wants to kill her.
Why?
Her belly!
Shouldn't have spread her legs.
What?
No, no...
She got it in the hammam.
Bullshit! She's broken.
Shame on you!
Go on,
Set out!
Where or how'? Fuck that.
No one should touch her, period.
Fatima, that hurts.
Sorry, stress.
Take her to the lady doc
he'll see she's a virgin.
His eyes, crazy.
He's become...
Leave beardless, return bearded.
Go figure...
He hit his mother!
I wanted to call the police,
but she swore
she'd fallen.
Poor woman.
When her husband died,
she sold her jewelry
for his studies in France.
Thank you Fatima, enough.
The thug!
Years with no news,
dashes back to kill his sister
to earn Paradise!
Meriem ran away'...
Aunty,
mom wants two lemonades.
Come, boy.
Fatima!
Is that my fouta at the door?
Shoo!
Leila, do your homework!
Lena, my sweetheart.
I missed you.
Here.
Your boss's fouta?
She's not coming today.
Yuck!
Oh, no!
Fatima, come here.
Leila?
Didn't sleep.
You saw the shrink?
Costs too much.
Hospital checkup in 6 months.
I told you I'd pay.
I love your niece like my own.
We'll see.
She needs an Imam.
With her past
cure her with the Koran?!
Shut up!
She's not deaf.
Look what I found!
There's a gold tooth!
Two! Cool!
I'll make a ring
or earrings.
No, I'll share.
Canine for me, molar for Fatima.
One in silver.
For you, Keltoum?!
One: Not gold, plate.
Two: Not silver, lead.
Three: I know the owner.
How'?
By the smell.
Yuck!
My life's going to change!
God heard me.
Baya found me a husband,
an expat.
His mom's coming with Baya.
The first contractions, my girl.
You don't run pregnant.
I'm scared Fatima.
Of your brother?
Over my dead body.
Of giving birth?
Normal at your age.
The first one's slow.
I have a midwife friend,
discreet.
I'll call her.
We'll go to her house.
If it hurts too much
bite something,
I don't want to hear you.
Don't leave me alone.
They'll suspect something.
I'll be back.
Be brave.
He has honey eyes!
And his name?
An expat!
Shut up!
What's wrong Fatima?
Got my period, OK?
Louisa, come.
What are you waiting for?
Hello...
Mme Djouda, the midwife...
Give me her number.
We got it at home.
I'm at work!
Shit!
- What?
- Come down!
I need 2 sachets for Keltoum.
Go work,
it's busy.
I'll do it.
Shhh, it's OK.
I'm going to get married too.
O women,
open the harem,
the beloved is here.
The party is joy
to the rhythm of the derbouka.
I'm no! Worried,
the bride's beauty will protect her.
Stop!
To your places.
Two sachets?
It's a forest down there.
Not one hair will escape.
For tonight, Keltoum?
I dream of it. I'm burning.
Once every 3 months,
I have spiderwebs down there!
Here, Fatima, please.
Imagine your husband in the Sahara
coming back every 3 months
pay in his pocket.
Should just send the money.
My honeys only staying one night.
They're on strike.
Poor thing...
Poor me!
God heard me,
period ended this morning.
I'll have fun tonight!
My old man, period or not...
Mine thinks it's dirty and impure,
so he takes me from...
Mind your kids!
I fell.
Like Meriem's mother?
What are you looking at?
I was scared of men.
Not scared,
I don't like them.
The idea of someone
touching my pussy
scared me.
Until my wedding night
I thought it was just for peeing.
How old were you?
And your wedding night?
Age 11, a game?
Yes, at the start.
A princess 7 days and 7 nights.
No chores, no blows, I played
and stuffed myself with cake.
The 7th day,
they covered me with jewels.
A gold-embroidered dress,
a silver lame' scarf.
Shut in a room
with white satin sheets
they told me:
Wad' for the man you WM' obey,
your husband, you his wife.
I jumped,
jumped on the spring mattress.
The smell of the bed covers.
Pure sheep wool.
Exhausted, I lay down,
happy with my new life.
He arrived. I knew him.
A friend of my father.
He gave me sweets.
He looked me up and down.
I smiled at him, held out my hand.
This time,
instead of sweets
he dropped his pants.
I run for the door... locked.
I call my father...
My mother crying through the door.
Women laughing.
Men banging the window.
Quick! The sheet! The blood!
I felt his damp hands
on my thighs.
I turned round.
He was standing there,
naked.
He looked at me, moist eyes,
saliva beading on his lips.
I was so afraid
I peed myself.
He threw me down, got on me.
I felt a dagger tearing me
pushing in my wound.
He was so heavy!
I'm burning! Quick! Water!
Burning or not, tonight I'm fucking.
That feels good!
Open the lemonade!
I got my divorce, gins!
My certificate of independence!
- Fatima!
- What?
Open up!
Zahia!
- What Zahia?
- The widow of...
What do you want?
To wash.
I shut at 4.
Make room for her.
What Fatima?
Tell me...
Does your brother know
Zahia, Emirs widow'?
I don't know. Why?
Just asking...
It's nothing.
God Mess.
Sister, do you have shampoo?
Salaam Nadia.
By God, lend me shampoo.
Thank you.
God will return it.
And your sister Souhila?
Not around anymore?
- My best friend at college.
- Gone!
- To France?
- There's not only France.
Inshallah, she'll spread Islam.
My shampoo.
What's up with you?!
Save you from hell.
A shampoo of evildoers.
Excuse me.
Halal or not, as suits you.
- What's up, sister?
- Not your sister.
All believers
are my brothers and sisters.
Your brothers?
Who sprayed me with acid at college
because I was wearing a skin
not your covers.
Yes... for Samia,
daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid,
of the Casbah.
Baya.
Wait!
Bitch!
What?
Baya's not coming.
She doesn't want Samia.
Why?
Because I'm dumb!
Don't tell Samia.
Why did I open my big mouth?
Come down!
Control your brats!
I'm gonna kill someone.
Quick!
Why did you divorce, Nadia?
I loved,
I don't love, I divorce.
Untangle me, I'll tell you about love.
That's knotty...
Conditioner!
Once upon a time
me on the balcony
him in the street.
When I walked to school
he waited
to see me
and smile at me
without speaking
and follow me.
Ten years of silent love
until he asked.
Your wedding night?
I was scared.
He touched me, I cried
for months
despite our families
demanding the sheet.
I was a whore
he was impotent.
But with kisses,
cuddles...
I throw myself at him!
Love exists!
Poor Tarzan
more rowing!
Fatima it feels so good
to tremble under your man
and his caresses...
your body burns
asks for more.
In films.
Your husband's got it wrong.
And yours?
No. But his brother...!
Louisa?
Hind! Oussama!
Fatima! My children!
Yuck!
She doesn't know what it is!
I found it in the toilets.
I thought I'd thrown it away.
Thank you.
Anyway, I'm old.
The man with the sweets,
beat me, I didn't have children.
Then I had six children.
All his brother's.
With the children grown
I lost my fear.
I deprived him to his death.
When the snake gets old
the frog screws him.
I loved my brother-in-law.
Ten years!
Then he left,
France swallowed him up.
He loved me!
Welcome Aicha.
Give me my husband's teeth.
There's one missing.
He must've swallowed it.
Already hard to understand,
one tooth less and he'll...
...lisp.
Tie them
to his neck with string!
I swear, try my coffee
just as you like it.
Why not.
Sugar.
More.
More.
Stop.
Here.
I'll bring it back empty later.
The boss wants you to wait. Important.
Important?
She's found
a place at the asylum
for my brother-in-law.
Her husband knows the director.
The number of madmen is rocketing...
It's true.
He's expensive!
Yesterday I reimbursed the kiosk.
He ate five newspapers
in one go.
With what's in the news,
that was hard to digest!
I'm going.
Stay.
It's on me.
I warned you,
I don't have my purse.
I know...
I want that place.
Move over.
She said move over!
Your belly?
Smile.
You're going to be a mother.
It's fixed.
Is my name Fatima or not?
Did you pick a name?
This is Meriem. You know her.
Don't worry.
No-one will hurt her.
Come.
He wants to play with you.
It's a secret.
I warn you,
I reserve that place!
Gm!
A lemonade.
Masseuse!
My name is Samia.
Whatever.
An orange lemonade.
That's Orangina.
Whatever.
And scrub my back.
You don't like mine?
Listen!
You,
I forbid you to speak to me.
And first,
a divorcee stays at her parents' home.
I knew it.
I smelled it in the house
but I couldn't believe it.
Yes, dear ex-mother-in-law
I smoked
and I will smoke again...
It helped me stand you.
Thank God,
my son spurned you like a...
whore?
Say it.
I remind you I divorced him.
My son is a man.
He snaps his fingers he has ten wives.
Not the same for a divorcee.
Your son a man?
It's true.
Before the marriage
I saw him as big.
After, how he shrunk,
shrunk...
What are you doing
in the men's area?
You'll catch a belly!
You don't get pregnant
by the Holy Spirit.
And the Virgin Mary?
She carried Jesus,
messenger of God.
And Meriem, Zoubida's daughter?
Fairy tales to fool you.
Thank you honey.
My pleasure.
I didn't know about the acid.
Veiled, God would have spared you.
Leave me.
You changed so much.
Drop it.
Why is she looking for my sister?
To have her killed,
like those who write, think
or sing of love?
Does love scare you?
- We only fear God.
- You don't fear God,
you want to be God!
Behind your veils and beards,
all murderers!
The veil protects us from temptation.
And the "bearded ones"
protect us from despots.
Murdered children, despots?
All wars are dirty.
I'll fight against
your Islamic Republic
if I have to ally with the devil!
The truth is,
Nadia started it.
You shut up!
You two,
no more politics in the hammam.
The difference between you two
for men?
None.
You hooded.
You open-top.
Good for fucking the pair of you.
What?
Nothing.
Each of you
just clean your OWN butts!
God damn it!
Fatima, a cigarette.
Speaking like that with Zahia!
Before his execution Djaout wrote:
You speak, you die.
You don! Speak, you die.
So speak, and die.
They'll rape you first.
Why I wear the veil?
They threatened me,
via a pupil, a little brat!
You smoke?
I smoke.
So me too,
for once in my life.
Three times this week!
Samia! Candles!
Come on ladies!
We got soap in my eyes.
Shut up and follow me.
Plenty of Marlboro!
Too expensive.
Dark ones.
For my mother-in-law.
She's coming.
An expat.
Like the French,
they don't like fat women.
Say,
am I beautiful?
From a good family?
Luckily I love you.
I'm leaving for France.
I don't envy the expats.
All they bring back?
Cheap trashy goods.
Don't leave Leila alone.
What's that?
Baya!
And those shoes?
Found in the courtyard.
Baya isn't...
Shit!
Where is this guy from?
From my dream.
Many a stranger?
And love?
Optional?
We got the recipe.
The recipe?
C'mon.
So the recipe?
Every morning
I boil the milk,
make the coffee, put out the biscuits.
I wake him,
dress him,
put on his jacket,
and he goes to work.
I stock up with water.
No water shortage.
Paradise!
I wash at the tap!
Washing, bread, dinner.
His favorite dishes.
Then I shower,
smooth my hair.
Perfume myself everywhere,
ears, neck,
underarms,
breasts, stomach, butt
and I wait in front of the TV.
"The Young and the Restless".
He comes in, I pinch my cheeks.
What?
So they're rosy.
Like makeup.
Tum round.
Take off his jacket, shower him,
Dry him,
give him his pajamas.
You don't help him?
No,
I have to heat dinner.
We eat watching the news.
Men watch news.
And then?
Then...
I slip into the bedroom,
put on my transparent nightgown,
loosen my hair,
get into bed and cough.
You cough?
So he comes!
He lies down next to me,
I wait, then I cough.
Again?
To take the glass of water
I put on his nightstand,
my body touches his,
he smells my perfume,
I close my eyes
he gets on me and...
And they had many children!
You'll spend your life
putting his jacket on
and coughing by night?
And love?
I'm already in love.
A wife can't
refuse a husband's advances.
That's in the Koran.
I love that verse.
The man too.
The more he honors his wife in bed
the greater his place in Paradise.
If he honors her out of bed,
he goes to hell?
I'm going to the toilet.
I fly
like a bird in the sky.
I swim like a fish
a fish in water.
Meriem!
You took your time.
Fatima, the plumber!
I don't want to stew in their dirt.
Yours!
You didn't see Meriem. Understand?
You didn't see her.
Watch Zahia.
If she wants to leave, tell me.
Watch her.
Leila.
Who called?
Fatima...
...El Sunna hammam.
The pipe is blocked.
Yes...
Quick.
Fatima! Oranges.
What's got into you?
I couldn't hold on.
My fault, I didn't think.
Samia saw me.
Not only her...
I'll get you a bucket.
What's that?
Leila!
In the name of God the Merciful...
Allah is unique.
Get off!
You're suffocating her!
Don't touch her!
Quick a key in her hand.
She saw blood.
Stop!
My God, poor child!
Satan possessed her.
Satan?
Satan, the savages
who slit her family's throats?
She's been mute since.
Why does she panic
when you invoke God?
Because when raping her sisters,
and disemboweling her pregnant mother
those monsters
chanted the Koran!
Excuse me.
Fatima!
There's a brunette got up as a bloody.
Pardon?
I meant, how stylish.
Really? Thank you.
What do you want?
And you are?
Fatima, head masseuse.
Delighted, Mme Fatima.
I'm Mme Mouni.
Very classy!
I have a meeting with
Mme Baya, the matchmaker.
You're the expat?
Yes, one might say.
And Zahia?
Baya's not coming, you can leave.
But I have a meeting.
She promised a wife for my son.
Say yes for Samia.
Excuse me.
Pardon?
For your son.
Mme Baya couldn't make it.
Her grandmother died.
I'm sorry.
You take her or not?
She asked Mme Fatima
to find you a real jewel.
What do you do?
Nothing.
Good.
How old are you?
And a half.
That's a little old.
Her parents don't want to lose her.
She's a washing machine.
See these hands?
They do your laundry
winter than white.
And embroidery, knitting, crochet...
Good investment.
And her cooking?
People dream of her cooking.
Tajines!
Her tajines! Chorba,
finger-lickin' good.
Her cakes?
The best makroud in the district,
gazelle horns,
melon jam with olives...
My son loves food.
Men, you gotta
satisfy their stomachs and below.
What is a man?
- A stomach and a dick.
- Right.
And she is...?
Are you insulting me?
Samia, come.
Excuse me, Mme Fatima.
I heard talk of this pregnant gin.
Meriem, I believe.
Watch what you say!
Samia is intact.
Certificate of virginity on delivery.
Good deal. I'll take her.
Samia, kiss your mother-in-law.
Tell me,
do you wear the scarf of God?
Don't annoy me, Madame.
Don't annoy me!
It's my son's condition.
He says our gins
are naked like the French.
Careful,
Mme Fatima will break off the deal.
She will.
I won't find better.
Bravo Mme Mouni.
Very good decision.
Let's enjoy the hammam
with your daughter-in-law.
Let's go celebrate.
Ululations? A wedding?
Listen women...
I haven't found
my husband's gold tooth.
God will punish who stole it.
My God, a man at the door!
Not a man, it's the plumber.
Check out his butt.
Should see my husband's.
Nice equipment up front!
Saucy!
Stop, I'm engaged.
Rub,
my mother-in-law's watching.
She's not.
I'm your client.
Don't laugh...
My God!
It fell nearby!
Nadia!
Did you already feel those things?
What things?
When you
make love.
That's called an orgasm.
And in Arabic?
I don't know.
I think we don't say it.
I already felt it.
Who was the lucky guy?
Are you crazy?
- A lucky girl?
- What?!
Alone, I do it often,
especially before sleeping.
So you're normal.
Because I don't have a husband.
Even married...
You don't regret after?
Doing myself good?
It's a sin.
In hell,
God will poke spines in our pussies
and snakes
will dig tunnels.
Where did you get that?
The Koran.
You read the Koran?
Everyone knows that.
Not the Koran, it's in the Bible.
Lucky we have hands.
Nadia!
I feel like it now.
Not here, Samia!
No, in the toilets...
I swear to God,
I'll stop when I'm married!
Hurry up, I'm closing!
We're not done.
Hurry up!
You said 5.
This hammam has changed.
The water's not hot.
Your friend the boss
sets the temperature.
Making savings off us.
With what her Minister husband
earned...
Stole.
- All corrupt and thieves.
- If you had the power...
Power was stolen from us.
We'll regain it thanks to God.
Thanks to the failings of democracy.
But we'll let go of nothing. Nothing!
Who "We"?
You revolutionaries
at home, or those puppets
of the West
starving and torturing children?
The same children
your husband beheaded.
Don't speak of my husband.
Where were you,
the communists,
when the police forced him to confess
what he didn't know'?
The club. The hose.
The waterboard. The bottle. Rape.
In the same jails,
in the same hands, Zahia.
My father too!
And you know it.
But he didn't become a monster
like your husband.
Blood calls for blood.
I'll teach my son his father
is a martyr in Paradise.
Zahia!
Your husband is just a corpse
eaten by worms
like his victims around him.
There is no Gad but Allah
and Muhammad is his Prophet.
For You we live, for You we die.
You stopped coming to the hammam.
Why today?
She must have seen me at the protest
and followed me here.
She preaches that the hammam is sin,
laughter, sin,
women, sin.
And this Zahia?
Is this a sin?
This is a sin!
Your Islam is not our Islam.
Your Islam is not our Islam.
You bitch tell Meriem to come out!
Meriem! You and your bastard will die!
No man at home,
and she thinks she's free.
From your mother's belly.
VII pull you out and kill you!
I know you hear me, bitch!
Go in!
- What do you want?
- I'm the brother of the adulteress.
Get lost, it's the woman's time.
I want to see her!
She's not here.
I said get lost!
My God!
Don't you recognize me?
I'm Aicha, your neighbor.
Aged nine,
you broke my window
with your catapult.
Remember?
On my son's head,
your sister is not here.
Samia's fault, she doesn't
clean the men's area.
No-one leaves.
You hear me bitch?
He didn't believe me?
This is Aicha again.
I birthed you,
from your mother's stomach.
On your dead father's head,
your sister is not here.
Meriem!
I'll bleed your bastard.
And drink his blood.
It's not a bastard, my son,
she caught it in the hammam.
In your corner.
I'm going home.
Samia, my haik.
Hey! Masseuse.
Masseuse? My Samia?
Why? They told you doctor?
I don't lie, I pray.
Ladies, is Samia a masseuse or not?
Out, sinner!
Shut up you.
Madame doesn't like masseuses?
A masseuse!
What will the French say?!
Masseuse or not,
she'll always be an Arab.
Open your mouth once more,
and I'll throw you out naked.
Where have I landed?
Welcome home, Mme Mouni.
You said free.
Nobody move!
My husband's dinner?
He'll have to manage.
His teeth are here.
A diet won't hurt him.
What hurts him is your sterility.
Why I'm sterile?
The pill!
You're witnesses.
She's murdered my grandchildren.
Give me Meriem or I U'! Cut your throats.
- Not scared of 3 beard hairs!
- All bitches,
daughters of whores!
Asshole!
He called me a whore! Me, Aicha,
daughter of Imam Ben Ali, son of Omar.
Daoud Ben Hassan,
great-nephew of Ibrahim, son of Isaac,
descended from Youssef,
in the line of the Prophet Mohammed
and he calls me a whore?
On the head of my ancestors,
you'll regret the day
I pulled you from your mother's belly.
Long live Algeria!
Fatima, let me vent.
Listen brat, on the head
of my dead father Ben Ali,
if I even sniff your scent here,
you enter a man, you exit a eunuch.
Shave your balls!
He's gone!
The final struggle...
Day of glory...
Don't be scared.
You're giving birth.
I'll be back.
My God,
you said nothing?
Why do that to me?
You made me perjure!
She took refuge here
we're going to help her.
Like it or not,
that's how it is.
You, hurry,
her waters have broken.
Call a doctor!
Go!
Just an assistant.
I studied medicine 4 years.
With your sister Nadia.
So hurry, upstairs!
All stay downstairs!
Keltoum stay with them.
Ululate women!
It's a boy!
Already?
From the shape of her belly.
Oil, quick!
Oil?
Did I say petrol?
Massage oil?
For the passage.
Meriem, is she OK?
Very brave,
and Zahia, a good assistant.
Meriem,
don't be scared.
I'll help you,
you and the baby.
No, my dear.
I'll take him out, I'll care for him,
he'll be the heir
I never had.
And the mother?
No, not all the World's problems.
I'll take them both.
And your husband?
I'll divorce, OK?
Quick, Aicha! She's in pain.
Be brave.
Here's Granny Aicha, Aunty Zahia.
I understand your moods.
You could have told me.
Sorry. Upset...
I can't have a child.
We want to adopt.
And Meriem could keep studying.
My daughter will back her
for a job at the Ministry.
Excuse me,
I can take them to France.
Get them an apartment
in public housing.
And welfare benefits.
Who are you?
Your new Imam, Chams El Dinne.
God is great!
Bring her and I will leave!
I won't touch you.
Give him his sister!
God is great!
I have an idea.
We'll all go out pregnant
like Meriem.
Ulysses!
Like in the movie
under the sheep
to escape the Cyclops.
O women!
Almighty God says in the Koran,
in the name of Merciful God:
And those whose disobedience
you fear,
exhort them, stay far from their beds,
strike them.
But when they obey you,
do not seek a quarrel with them,
for Allah is great and mighty!
Allah knows the truth!
lam the widow of your Emir,
the martyr Mustapha Seif Eddine.
They say the Prophet,
the prayers and
the peace of Allah be with him,
freed a pregnant adulteress:
Go give birth, and wean your babe.
She came back after weaning.
He ordered that
she be buried to chest height
and stoned.
Die my sister,
and go to hell.
Samia!
Samia!
My name was Samia,
Daughter of Lakhdar El Moudjahid.
I was 29 and a half
and never married.
I didn't strike my head when I was sad.
I went on to the terrace
and I watched the sea.
My mother forbade me
to go on the terrace.
So I liked to do the laundry,
that way.
I hung it out...
my mother was happy,
and I...
I left to dream with the sea...
I can go now...
Free... I fly away
above the waves...
Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
I don't leave alone
I take the headscarves...
all the headscarves...
because I love you
my little Leila.