Algeria: The Desert Ark (1997)
It was always going to happen eventually: I was going to see a film I didn’t like. I’d half-expected it to be the first film I watched (irony is like that) but was surprised by my raunchy thriller from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I then expected it again from Senegal, but was highly impressed by the film I saw from there, and decided that perhaps it might behove me to stop trying to prejudge films simply because I didn’t know much about their country of origin.
Algeria is not a country with a widely-exported body of film-making: it was one of the ones ChatGPT initially said would be difficult. As it happened, it wasn’t (thanks to the Great African Films series) and I found myself with a copy of The Desert Ark, a Romeo and Juliet-style tragedy in which a boy from a tribe of wandering nomads falls in love with a girl who’s a town-dweller in a rural agricultural community. She’s also betrothed to someone else, so the inevitable ensues and both of them endure various hardships within and without their social groups, before every single person on either side kills one other in a brutally devastating orgy of mindless violence. Off screen.
I also fell asleep twice.
It could be the print (it wasn’t the best). It could be the subtitling (it wasn’t the clearest). It could be the utter lack of originality in a tale which was hackneyed when Shakespeare told it, or it could even be the peculiar decision to have huge chunks of the action happen off-screen. Whatever it was, I could not get into this film at all.
It looked nice. Absolutely dazzling visuals of clear dunes, a sparkling oasis and verdant palm trees. Even the rough dwellings hewn out of local rock didn’t seem off-putting (like the Yorkshire Dales, but warmer). But despite the heat the narrative left me cold.
I got it – violence is bad, mob violence even more so, and what was once a good tradition may not be relevant to the modern world. I can’t argue with any of that, and had the film been more relatable I might have found something to enjoy here. But it wasn’t for me.
And that’s fine. I knew I wasn’t going to like every film I saw. I’m quite pleased it’s taken this long to find one. I just hope the next one is better.
Disc: DVD (Region 1, USA)
Source: eBay
Availability: Still widely available; be kind and buy direct