Since in Algeria most women traditionally are not allowed to mix with men, female orchestras customarily entertain gatherings of women. When they play, women remove their veils and dance, away from the view of men. All summer long one can hear music from roof terraces and walled gardens as women celebrate engagements, weddings and the circumcision of their sons.

The meddahatts are women musicians who perform for other women. Though they are much in demand, they are held in low esteem. Many are widowed or divorced and have fallen on hard times. But their earthy humor and erotic showmanship delights their normally constrained sisters.

This film is a portrait of one such orchestra. Only a woman filmmaker could have penetrated this closed environment and captured on film sucha spontaneous and colorful portrait. Paradoxically, this orchestra includes Sid Ahmen and Amin, a gay couple. Nobody seems to question their presence, the only men in an exclusively female world.

French and Arabic with subtitles.

American Anthropological Association, 1994
Middle East Studies Association, 1994
Margaret Mead Film Festival, 1994