Farouk Beloufa
Algeria, Lebanon

About the Film
The film Nahla, shot in 1978 but set in 1975, follows the intertwined stories of four characters in Beirut at the dawn of the Lebanese Civil War: Nahla, a young singer who loses her voice; her sister Maha, a feminist journalist; Hind, a Palestinian activist who provides a communication channel for the camps and later joins the resistance; and Al-Arabi, an Algerian journalist caught in the turmoil. Inspired solely by real historical events like the Battle of Kfarchouba, Kissinger’s meeting with Sadat, and the assassinations of Maarouf Saad and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, it is a political drama reflecting the 1970s Arab leftist thought.

The film was written by Rachid Boudjedra, among others, and produced by the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Algérienne. The music featured in the film was composed by the late Lebanese artist Ziad Rahbani, who also makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Year: 1979
Runtime: 116 min
Director: Farouk Beloufa
Writers: Farouk Beloufa, Rachid Boudjedra
Cinematography: Allel Yahiaoui
Sound: Kamel Mekesser
Editor: Moufida Tlatli
Cast: Yasmine Khlat, Ahmed Mehrez, Fayek Hamissi, Roger  Assaf, Nabila   Zitouni, Yousef   Saiah, Ziad   Rahbani

Farouk Beloufa, often described as “the filmmaker of a single masterpiece”, graduated from the National Film Institute in Algeria, then from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris under Roland Barthes in 1970. Back in Algeria he worked as a critic and writer for the magazine Chashatan, engaging with major filmmakers. He later collaborated as assistant on the screenplay of The Return of the Prodigal Son (1976) by Youssef Chahine. The film Nahla remains his only feature film and is recognized as a landmark in Arab cinema.