THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD”: TO SEE
The arrival in the rooms of The Last Queen constitutes in itself a small event, a symbol. The first feature film by Adila Bendimerad (who holds the title role) and Damien Ounouri is, in fact, a survivor. One of the last films to have benefited from the support of the Fund for the Development of Art, Technique and the Film Industry (Fdatic). Since then, in fact, this system, launched five years after the country’s independence and which has helped to keep the head of Algerian cinema above water, has been dissolved.
This measure, which came into force on December 31, 2021, dealt a severe blow to the profession and provoked anger and indignation among filmmakers. Sofia Djama (The Blessed2017) did not mince words, evoking “a killing of Algerian cinema” and his fear of seeing this new generation of authors disappear (Hassen Ferhani, Karim Moussaoui, Amine Sidi-Boumédiène, etc.) who had emerged in recent years.
New Battle
In this context of desolation, it is difficult not to take a tender and benevolent look at this Last Queen coming from Algiers, at a time when the city was a monarchical Republic, led by King Salim Toumi (Mohamed Tahar Zaoui) and asphyxiated by the Spanish occupiers. In other words the XIVe century, the era chosen by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri to carve this historic film like a stone, with reflections of legend, whose story takes us back to palace intrigues, bloody saber fights and thwarted loves.
In this context, The Last Queen yields to some awkwardness and heaviness a tad obsolete. It prevents. In the picture it draws through the detail and arrangement of its sequences, the film revives the almost childish pleasure that great romantic stories provide. The one told to us here takes the form of a tragedy in five acts whose echo reaches us through the grace and modernity of its heroine, as well as those of the other women present in her kingdom.
The famous queen is called Zaphira (Adila Bendimerad), a sensual woman deeply in love with King Salim Toumi, whose favors she shares with Chegga (Imen Noel), the other wife, more focused on strategic affairs and the country’s wars than she is not herself. We are in 1516, the pirate Aroudj Barberousse (Dali Benssalah) has just won a new battle against the Spaniards, losing an arm in the fight but liberating Algiers from the occupier. The winner is not unanimous. The Council and part of the people fear his cruelty and hidden ambitions, such as wanting to take power.
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