Thawra Zanj
Tariq Teguia
Algeria, France, Qatar | 2013 | 134 min
Languages : Arabic, Greek, French, English
Subtitle : French
In the mouths of the rioters he is photographing in southern Algeria, Ibn Battutâ—a homonym of the famous explorer of the Muslim world of the 14th century—hears the word “Zendj”. Tracking this forgotten rebellion of black slaves against the power of the Abbasid Caliphate, the filmmaker’s alter-ego sketches, over encounters, a sensitive geopolitical portrait of past struggles and current insurrections across the Mediterranean Basin.
Emmanuel Chicon