Alea Jacarandas – Films – Visions du Réel

Hassen Ferhani
France, Algeria | 2026 | 78 min
World premiere
Languages : Algerian Arabic, French
Subtitles : French, English

In the streets of Algiers, jacaranda trees bloom like shards of memory. Following in the footsteps of his father, Ameziane, a writer haunted by these purple trees, Hassen Ferhani (VdR Atelier 2022, Afric Hotel VdR 2011 and Tarzan, Don Quichotte et nous VdR 2013) explores the city, legacy and love. A rich and intimate quest in which writing, filming or choosing beauty become acts of resistance.

The film opens in darkness: seagulls... then Algiers emerges from the sea, dazzling, draped in white. Zoom. The camera roams the city, in search of a secret. In front of a blooming jacaranda, a voice speaks: “So, Dad, tell me…”. In three shots, everything is revealed: a father, his city, beauty. Ameziane, a journalist, intellectual and lover of Algiers, had become captivated by these mysteriously appearing purple trees, cataloguing them and weaving them into a novel. His son, Hassen, picks up the thread, with the jacarandas as accomplices and his father as the compass in a concrete and symbolic investigation; to revive words, to understand this love for details, for people, and for all that shapes the soul of a place. From tree to tree, page to page, weaving interviews, archives and wanderings, the film does not seek answers so much as a way of seeing, a readiness to embrace the world. An intimate and moving treasure hunt that celebrates the rare art of wonder.

Anne Delseth

Alea Jacarandas, 2026
143 Sahara Street, 2021
Roundabout in my Head, 2016
Tarzan, Don Quichotte and Us, 2013
1/2 Afric Hotel, 2010
Le Vol du 140, 2008
Bays of Algiers, 2006