China Is Still Far (France/Algeria | 2008 | 120' | Arabic/Berber | with Arabic & English Subtitles) Director: Malek Bensmail Producer: Philippe Avril Cinematography: Lionel Yan Kerguistel Editor: Matthieu Bretaud Sound: Dana Farzanehpour Original Music: Camel Zekri

A school somewhere in the Aurés. Between the North and the South. Between an oasis and the steppe.I decided to set up my camera in a classroom of the last form of a primary school for a few months so that I could seize, through the look of the children as well as through that of their teachers and families, what has been passed on in an Algerian school, 50 years after the independence.From this rebellious region, from this country loaded with history, from this road, and from this school, the film asks an essential question: How was Algerian identity born, how was it handed down from generation to generation and how was it affected by French colonization in a country where the history of the educational system mirrors the unique battle field of the quest for control of the Maghreb? filmmaker will be present.

Malek Bensmail Malek Bensmaïl develops projects essentially about the relationship between the "Oriente and occidente". He is the author and director of more than a dozen documentaries exhibited in France and internationally on TV and at festivals. In the past few years he has developed a new technique of using image files in an innovative creative way.