Ali in Wonderland

Dec 17, 1980

2h 9m

★ 9.5

Overview

In the 1980s, barely 18 years after Algeria's independence, Algerian immigration to France massively fueled the construction industry, responding to a demand for hard, undervalued labor. Behind the idea of "selective immigration," these men were recruited primarily for their bras and their knock-kneed hands, shaped by construction sites. Invisible yet essential, they built roads, buildings, and infrastructure, often at the cost of precarious conditions. Ali, an Algerian crane operator in France, philosophically accepts the harassment faced by immigrants like himself on construction sites and in daily life. He hopes to escape his situation with the money he wins in the lottery, and from the top of his crane, he allows himself to dream, observing the world through binoculars. One day, the jackpot falls...

Genres

Drama

Comedy

Production Companies

Office National pour le Commerce et l'Industrie Cinématographique (ONCIC)

Ali in Wonderland Trailers

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Cast

Ali

Djelloul Beghoura

Mustapha El Anka

Salah

Saïd Hilmi

Thérèse

Corinne Brodbeck

Jean-Christophe

Albert Delpy

Larbi Zekkal

Mustapha Kateb

Ahmed

Ahmed Snoussi

Henri Poirier

Andrée Tainsy

Jean Valmont

Donato Bastos

An unemployed Algerian worker leaves Paris by hitchhiking. He soon found himself in Brittany and, seduced by the beauty of wild gorse, eventually established himself as a gorse merchant. But for problems with parking his little cart, he had a rough explanation with a law enforcement officer. The happy intervention of factory workers, the eager kindness they showed him, saved him from despair. This film is part of a trilogy "Them And Us" with the films "Les 3 Cousins" and "Techniquement Si Simple".

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