Film Soula Commercially Releases in Algeria, the Country of Production

release date March 14 2022

Feature film Soula, by Salah Issaad, commercially releases in Algeria, the country of production, right after being awarded for Best Feature Film at Beirut International Women Film Festival.

The film screens at the closing ceremony for an event held by No Means No initiative in Algeria on Thursday, March 17. This comes in the presence of the director and the leading actress of the film, Soula Bahria. Both will sit for a Q&A discussion after the screening, which is the first in the film’s country of production.

In collaboration with the Institut Français d'Algérie, the film is slated to have further screenings. In the presence of the director, it will screen twice in the Algerian capital (Saturday, March 19 at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM ( GMT+1)) and will screen in Oran on Monday, May 9 at 6:00 PM.

The film was previously screened at Arab film festivals, including Red Sea International Film Festival (World premiere). Additionally, it earned widespread critical acclaim, with film critic Tarek El Shinnawi calling it as “a woman's cry out, and the performance of the leading actress, Soula Bahri, was striking.”

Soula is the story of a single mother whose father expelled her, leaving her homeless with her baby. Soula finds herself going from one car to another with other people while looking for a safe location to stay the night. Throughout a night full of unfortunate events along the roads of Algeria, Soula tries her best to change her destiny, but fate has another saying.

Written, directed, and produced by Salah Issaad, Soula is co-written by Soula Bahri, whose life story inspired the director to turn it into a film and let Soula play the lead role. The film is produced by Issaad Film Productions (the three brothers Taqi Eldin, Abdelghafour, and Salah Issaad). The film stars Soula Bahri, Idir Benaibouche, and Franck Yvrai. MAD Solutions handles the film’s marketing and distribution in the Arab world.

Salah Issaad is an Algerian director who was raised in a family of publishers. After receiving a bachelor's degree (High school degree) in Letters and Foreign languages in 2008, he joined the Law school of Batna in Algeria. He moved to France to complete his film studies for two years at the University of Paris VIII. Afterward, he joined the ARFIS audiovisual school in Lyon, then he ended up joining the Factory School in Villeurbanne, where he obtained his Cinema director diploma.

Salah directed a feature film and several short films, where his passion motivates him to tell stories that appreciate human relationships. Moreover, he likes to explore different narrative forms and film genres like drama, tragedy, stories inspired by real events, as well as comedies.