RACHIDA

Algiers during the worst years of terrorism. Rachida is a beautiful young teacher who lives and works in a popular neighbourhood of Algiers. One morning, as she goes to work without wearing a veil, she is taken to task by a group of terrorists, which includes one of her pupils, Sofiane. They tell her to plant a bomb in her school. She refuses in spite of her fear. Out of anger, the leader of the gang shoots her in the stomach. They all run away leaving her to bleed to death in the neighbourhood deserted by its frightened inhabitants… Miraculously Rachida survives. But she decides to leave Algiers and to seek refuge in the village of a colleague of hers, Yasmina, who lends her a house. She moves in with her mother, who is also a disgraced woman because she is divorced.