Roqia
This chilling horror mystery weaves together the trauma of the Algerian Civil War, Islamic exorcism and the ghosts of war.
What remains when society chooses to forget? Yanis Koussim’s debut feature film uses supernatural horror to unravel the untold legacy of Algeria’s 1990s civil war, the “Black Decade.”
The mystery unfolding across two time periods weaves together the nightmarish homecoming of a man who has lost his memory and the fading struggle of an aging raqi—a healer who practices Islamic exorcism—against invisible forces. In Islamic tradition, ruqyah is a ritual based on the recitation of the Quran, used for healing and warding off evil. In Koussim’s hands, however, exorcism takes on a broader meaning: it is a desperate attempt to keep in check a past that refuses to remain buried.
Progressing with restrained yet unrelenting intensity, Roqia builds its tormenting atmosphere from silence, whispers, and uncertainty. Its horror springs from the ghosts of history that inhabit people’s minds, homes, and landscapes. Blending belief traditions with modern genre cinema, the film demonstrates just how effectively horror can give voice to what we no longer know how to talk about.
Rauli Karjalainen (translated by Moritz Müller)
Screenings
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Cinema OrionSun 20.9. at 20.45–22.1994 min, 1/3
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Kinopalatsi 1Wed 23.9. at 16.45–18.1994 min, 2/3
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Kinopalatsi 5Sun 27.9. at 20.30–22.0494 min, 3/3