The filming of the historical fiction “Ben M’hidi” devoted to the path of Larbi Ben M’hidi, icon of the National Liberation War, assassinated in his cell in 1957, started on Wednesday in Algiers.
The launch of the movie’s filming, directed by Bachir Derrais, took place symbolically at the “Villa Sesini,” a former detention and torture centre of the colonial army on the heights of Algiers and which became, after the independence, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Algiers.
Based on a script written by Mourad Bourboune and adapted to cinema by cineaste Abdelkrim Bahloul, this feature-length film, to be filmed also in Lakhdaria, Biskra, Bechar, and other studios in Tunis, is a co-production of the Mujahideen and Culture ministries which entrusted the executive production to Algerian company “Les Films de la Source.”
With a budget of about DZD520 billion released in equal parts by the producers, the filming will run, according to Bachir Derrais, until next September.
The beginning of the filming was made in the presence of Minister of Culture Nadia Labidi, Minister of Mujahideen Tayeb Zitouni, Minister of Communication Hamid Grine as well as other members of the government and other historical figures.