Born in Algiers in 1944, Merzak Allouache studied film in Algiers and Paris. Omar Gatlato (1976), a comedy about a young civil servant who is obsessed with his cassette recorder and with a woman he has never met, shows everyday Algiers with a humour that was new to Algerian cinema. Bab El-Oued City (1994), about a young man in a neighbourhood of Algiers who tears down a loudspeaker used by Islamists, won the critics' prize at Cannes. He made it during the civil war, and moved to France. Chouchou (2003) was a hit comedy in France.
Filmography
- Omar Gatlato (1976)
- Bab El-Oued City (1994)
- Chouchou (2003)
- Harragas (2009)
- Normal! (2011)
- Les Terrasses (2013)