Daughter of Keltoum is part of The Global Lens Collection

A 19 year-old Swiss woman travels to her birthplace – an isolated, barren Berber settlement in the mountainous desert landscape of Algeria – to find her biological mother, who she has never met. The perilous journey immerses her in a world virtually untouched by contemporary society, one that still clings to tribal mores and strict religious codes of conduct.

{Toronto Film Festival}
{Kodak Award, Mons Festival of Love Films}
{SIGNIS Jury Award, 2003 Milan African Film Festival}

What the Critics are Saying

"In Daughter of Keltoum, Mehdi Charef achieves a dark and poetic testimony to his roots."
- Boston French Film Festival

"In addition to the film’s considerable emotional core, it also offers insights on the plight of Algerian women." - Patriot Ledger (Boston)

"Handsome photography. Solid performances." - Variety

"Exotic!" - Village Voice

"Meditating on the vastness of the continent, the film creates a dreamlike fusion of what Bowles himself described as the ‘actual desert and [the] inner desert of the spirit.’"
- City Pages (Minneapolis)