El’Sardines
Spring Grants 2024 - Production Stage
Zoulikha Tahar / Web Series / Algeria, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar / 10 min / Original Language: Arabic, French / Interests: Animation, Comedy, Drama
Synopsis
Near Oran, six days before her younger sister’s wedding, Zouzou, a 30-year-old single bio-marine engineer, still hasn’t found the courage to tell her family that she’s leaving the day after the wedding to follow the migration of sardines that have mysteriously disappeared from Algerian waters. Between gossip about her single status, therapy sessions with her hairdresser-psychologist, and a friendship in crisis, will she manage to leave?
Credits
- Director
- Zoulikha Tahar
- Screenwriter
- Zoulikha Tahar, Kaouther Adimi
- Producer
- Hugo Legrand-Nathan, Yacine Medkour, Claire Leproust Moroko
- Production Company
- Fablab Channel
About the Director
Berlinale Talents alumna Zoulikha Tahar is an Algerian filmmaker and writer. Initially trained in mechanical engineering, she shifted to artistic expression in 2015, creating video poems under the name ‘Toute Fine’. A few years later, she moved to France to study documentary filmmaking at La Femis. Her first short film, ‘A Life of Trials’, explored the representation of Algerian immigrant women in France. She went on to direct ‘The Winter That Never Dies’, a film about language loss, and ‘Everyday’, a documentary addressing mental load. Her work often centres on maternal figures, cultural transmission, and self-representation. Zoulikha Tahar recently wrote and directed her first fiction series, which is set to air on Arte and TV5Monde. She is currently working on several projects, including hybrid documentary and fiction.