Introduced by Magda Wassef, Institute de Monde Arabe Since early childhood Merwan Kechida has lived in France but kept his Algerian citizenship. One day he is deported and forced to return to Algeria, a land whose language and customs he does not know. Quickly and brutally he is initiated into his new status. The authorities confiscate his passport and send him to the desert to perform military service. With his high-spirited and independent girlfriend, Malika-herself a victim of forced integration into a culture she does not understand-Merwan flees the country holding him against his will, back to the country that deported him against his will. One of the most pressing problems in French society today is the integration of its Arabic immigrants. Caught between two cultures, young people of the second generation are often victims of racism in France and ostracism in their country of heritage. Cheb treats the painful contradictions of life for these young people with subtlety, poetry, and emotion.-Marie-Pierre Macia, SFIFF '91