In my own country: internal exile in Rachida and Viva Laldjérie

Abstract

This article discusses the critical portrayal of displacement, violence and trauma in two feature-length fiction films released just after the Algerian civil conflict (1991–2001): Rachida (Yamina Bachir-Chouikh, 2002) and Viva Laldjérie (Nadir Moknèche, 2004). In each film, the domestic displacement of a mother–daughter duo represents the experiences of a populace ‘exile[d] in [its] own country’ (Rachida). Images depicting the condition of ‘internal exile’ reflect a pervasive sense of fear, instances of anti-civilian violence and the difficulty of transcending historical structures such as gender codes and state power. Depicting figures of internal exile offers a radical visual testimony to a country long deprived of history and memory by official policies of amnesia, including censorship. Bachir-Chouikh and Moknèche use contrasting techniques to reveal undercurrents of outrage, malaise and dégoûtage (disgust) among Algerians, not only at the sheer horror of terrorism and other forms of violence, but also at the potential complicity of the authoritarian state in the atrocities of Algeria’s ‘black decade’.