Twenty years before, Makmoud Zemmouri had depicted an Algerian town ,just before the independence in 1962 :"Les Folles Années Du Twist ";his hero was an anti hero ,the happy-go-lucky (and opportunist ) Boualem,whose desire to join the resistant fighters remained a pious hope.
In 2006 ,Brahim could be Boualem's son: easy come easy go could be his motto:lazy,still living with his Smala ,all he does is hang around in Paris streets ,often with his good pal Mouloud (as Boualem used to do with his chum Salam).
The screenplay is rather thin ,but Zemmouri has not lost his most salutary quality:his sense of humor;besides,the movie owes a lot to the late Yasmine Belmadi who had plenty of go and carries the movie on his shoulders.
The big event of the day is the French/Algeria football game ,and its unfortunate aftermath;the Algerian supporters(our hero is one of them) go crazy after French team's fourth goal , sweep into the field,and blow the game: hence a "Pur Beur" ( Beur refers to a person born in France of North African parents) waste .
However,though enjoyable,this movie does not satisfy as much as the 1986 effort;there are good ideas in the final scenes in the Algerian airport (an almost Kafkaesque situation) but they are not fully exploited ;the "Beur" girl's role ,who studies philosophy, is too underwritten;the ending is botched and disappointing.
