Im 15 mins into “Papicha” and im already fucking mad

I can already see this gearing up to be another “the cool liberated free girls” live life while the poor simple hijabi has to quit school to get married why is it France only produces Algerian movies with this narrative

Leopard G strings fi dzayer in 1995? Tqa3adou biya? G strings werent even popping here in thr US till the 2000s smh

Shorty gonna talk back to the guy with a gun over a flier? Lol who made this movie

So she gonna hear the gun shot but not even turn around?

How she got on ripped jeans in the 90s? WHO DID THE WARDROBE TO THIS MOVIE? A DUDE IN THE LAST SCENE HAD ON A NEW MARSEILLE JERSEY, DID YALL EVEN TRY?

Why shorty riding so hard against the haik like it wasnt NA cultural heritage. The akhinas brought the long jelbab and niqab not the haik and la3djar, that was for older women that predated the islamic movement entirely

Im still not over the night club scene. People were literally terrified to stand on their balconies at night and yall want me to believe these shorties were out galavanting AND found a clandestine to take them to the club? Get the fuck outta here

Hijabi: “im getting married in a month and im pregnant by another man”

Nedjma: “why dont u tell ur fiancee, maybe he will be understanding”

The gang of roving Jilbabi goons running down on random ppl has been the most entertaining part of the movie so far

At first I thought it seemed far fetched but I had a fam member get blinded by a grenade for owning a fridge when the local irhab said fridges were “7hram” so

Bro the makeup artists couldnt even cover up the girls’ tattoos lol

Bro I need an older Algerian to tell me when “Papicha” and “la cite” became slang, because Papicha I fee like came way later and “la cite” is emigris slang in France not fel bled

Yo what movie was the guy who played “Mokhtar” in? He looks so familiar

Nedjma always starting a fight where she gotta get out the car or ask for a ride home, shut the fuck up or get ur own whip lol

So overnight son went from selling womens clothes and beads to selling hijabs lol. Bet.

Of couuuuuuurse her boyfriend beat her up. If she takes him back im turning this off.

So....shorty still pregnant right?

You mean irhab stormed their fashion show and killed a bunch of people? WHO COULD HAVE FORSEEN THIS UNFORTUNATE TURN OF EVENTS?!

SALIM IS ONE OF THR IRHAB

Of course it had to be the hijabi who got pregnant, part of the whole “hipocrisy of religion” narrative.

So thats it, they basically replaced the sister with the pregnant hijabi and everyone lives happily ever after?

Its official: WLAD LAHLAL > PAPICHA. DONT. @. ME.

Not that anyone cares but here is my official #Papicha Review. I will start with the positive.

- The acting was great, there was more depth in the range of emotions shown than there has been in Algerian shows/movies in the past. (Not just yelling, although there was plenty lol)

Another positive is the fact that it was directed, written and produced by Algerians. Regardless of how we feel about this movie we need more and more Algerians in the film indsutry if we ever hope to control our own narrative and have our stories told.

And the final positive is the fact that this movie even got made. Movies about the 90s in Algeria are very hot button issues and evoke alot of strong emotions in ppl (my wife cant watch anything on the 90s, not even docs).

As we start to discuss the 90s and unpack all of the

Trauma and strong emotions around it, inchAllah we can heal as a country.

So thats the good about #Papicha now for the bad

- the movie didnt feel like it was made by ppl who really lived the 90s. It felt like people in 2019 who were telling second hand stories from ppl who lived in the 90s through the lens of their modern 2019 perspective

The literal first scene (that I never recovered from) was when they snuck out of their uni, and took clandestine to club. As the cab is driving they are looking out the window and there are other cars and little kids playing outside while they are on their way to this club.Pause.

Anyone that grew up during the 90s will tell you when “Couvre feu” hit it was a GHOST TOWN outside esp in Alger. If u were visiting someones house for dinner, shit thats where u were gonna spend the night lol. If someone got sick or ur wife was giving birth in the middle of the

Night and you had NO CHOICE but to go out, you went t’shahed along the way because you didnt know who would stop you the cops or the irhab, and its not like one was safer than the other. As kids we werent allowed to stand on the balcony at night or even stand in the window with

The lights on because someone could mistake ur sillouhete for a sniper and they would shoot you. Weddings and parties were basically non-existant in parts of the country because of the fear. So the idea that these 2 girls snuck out to go club and hired some dumbass clandestine

To take them IS REDICULOUS to me lol. Not to mention the club is filled with cute college girls. Clubs in Algeria have a 10-1 guy to girl ratio and half the girls there are prostitutes (and im being generous by saying half lol)

I say all that to say, parts of the movie seemed to be written by people who lived after the machakil, not ones who lived it. Then again I can only speak for my limited personal experience so maybe we just had 2 very different lifestyles in Algeria

The second bad thing I didnt like was the age old liberal notion that the girls who are partying, drinking, and fucking are the ones living life and who have hopes and dreams, and the ones who are traditional and religious live miserable and deprived existences.This idea isnt new

And has been very common in western (esp French) society.

It piggy backs off the idea that religion is hypocritical too because the super conservative hijabi girl is the one who fucked a random guy 4 months before her wedding and is pregnant by him lol. Im not saying it doesnt

Happen at all, but its so rare and so sensational that it almost seems deliberate, esp given the war on hijab raging in France/ Europe today.

Finally the main character (Nedjma) defiance seemed so unrealistic, not only when compared to real life but even inconsistent in the movie. She confronts a young guy for putting up fliers telling women to wear niqab but runs away when she sees he has a gun. 10 mins later she

Confronts him on the bus and wont take a flier from him, then gets off in the middle of no where to walk home by herself? That makes no sense lol.

There were other annoyances: wardrobe issues, the slang used (im sorry but no one says la cite in Algeria, they say el 7houma, la cite is Emigris slang), the conflation between the niqaab/jelbab and the haik/3djar, or even the scene where her mom shows her how women used to hold

The haik in their mouth so they “dont talk because a womans voice isnt important” seemed rediculous, I had never heard that before and my grandmother/ older women in my fam used to wear them, but idk enough about it to say its totally bullshit.

The scene I liked the most was when the irhab busted in the fashion show and Nedjma notices the shop keeper Salim (who she buys supplies from) is one of them. That was very important because it represented a true feeling from that time that the irhab were everywhere and could be

Anyone, even ur neighbors and friends. That was the most important scene in the film IMO even if it was 5 seconds. It said so much to me.

Another very very important scene is when the woman shot Nedjmas journalist sister. That also brought alot of emotions back for me bcuz I had 2 fam members who worked in media who were killed/paralyzed like that and one of my grandmas cousins survived after a woman cut her throat

All in all I give the film a 5/10. It is worth the watch, we need to support Algeria cinema and TV even if it sucks if we ever hope for it to get better. There are so many talented and creative ppl in Algeria and its diaspora today we need to invest in them and give them a shot.

Sorry for the spoilers.