Plot

Fatima, a strong-minded woman, is the lead masseuse of a hammam in Algiers. This is 1995 and the situation is tense in the capital. The day ahead promises to be hectic for all, and for Fatima in particular. Already, while walking to her place of work, she is the distant witness of a terrorist attack. At the hammam, Fatima should feel better, but the atmosphere proves electric in her small enclosed world, she has great difficulty in maintaining order. All the more as Meriem, a sixteen-year-old pregnant girl comes to take shelter at the hammam. And as irate brother, Mohamed, is after her to cleanse his honor in blood.—Guy Bellinger

In the heart of a Hamam bath, away from the accusing gaze of men, mothers, lovers, virgins or exalted Islamists, buttocks and scarves for God confront each other, call each other between laughter, tears and tantrums, Bible and Koran before the whistle of a dagger and the silence of God.—Carthage Film Festival