The Empire of Dreams

At a glance

The Empire of Dreams, is a 1982 Algerian movie, directed by Jean-Pierre Lledo, and starring Sid Ali Kouiret, Fettouma Ousliha-Bouamari, Brahim Hadjadj. with a runtime of 125 minutes.

Overview

The Empire of Dreams (أحلام / Ahlam) is an Algerian film that follows a stubborn director on a deeply personal quest to rediscover the Algiers of his childhood. Working with a cast of non-professional actors, each harbouring their own Hollywood fantasies of transformation and reinvention, the director finds himself caught between his creative vision and his characters' hunger to become someone else — if only for the duration of the film. A playful yet probing mise en abyme, the film layers fiction within fiction, exploring megalomania, nostalgia, and the blurred line between the director's memory and the city that no longer matches it. A uniquely self-aware work of Algerian cinema.

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