CHERGUI
CINEMATIC STORIES OF TRANSNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
A CURATED SUMMER VISION
Montreal sometimes means warm summer nights at La Casa d’Italia’s Cinéma Public. This summer, mid-July, it more specifically meant CHERGUI, a vision that carries with it stories of exile, revolt and transformation. This was the metaphor chosen by Dhakira Collective and La Clef Revival for their cross‑Atlantic curatorial collaboration, a film series that uses moving images as a tool of community building and feminist solidarity.
The partnership itself is a tale of solidarity. Dhakira Collective, founded by Moroccan‑born curators Bouchra Assou and Gaïa Guenoun, emerged from a desire to archive and promote the overlooked cinema and art of North Africa and the broader SWANA region. Their efforts resonate with the story of La Clef Revival, a Parisian community‑run cinema saved from closure when a collective of volunteers occupied the theatre in 2019. They turned the projectors back on and rallied support from artists such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and Jean‑Luc Godard. Inviting La Clef’s grassroots ethos into Montréal’s Cinéma Public, Dhakira not only amplifies marginalized voices, but also demonstrates how communal cinemas can transcend national borders.
The partnership itself is a tale of solidarity. Dhakira Collective, founded by Moroccan‑born curators Bouchra Assou and Gaïa Guenoun, emerged from a desire to archive and promote the overlooked cinema and art of North Africa and the broader SWANA region. Their efforts resonate with the story of La Clef Revival, a Parisian community‑run cinema saved from closure when a collective of volunteers occupied the theatre in 2019. They turned the projectors back on and rallied support from artists such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and Jean‑Luc Godard. Inviting La Clef’s grassroots ethos into Montréal’s Cinéma Public, Dhakira not only amplifies marginalized voices, but also demonstrates how communal cinemas can transcend national borders.
CHRONIQUE IRANIENNE : L’INTIME EST POLITIQUE
The first evening gathered three short films from Iran; archival collage, observational documentary and portraiture, to explore how personal stories become political. The selections were:
Revolutionary Memories of Bahman Who Loved Leila
Farah Sharifi, 2012
15 min
A blend of archival footage and visual poetry about a young man swept up in the 1979 revolution.
Peuple de l’Eau
Azadeh Bizargiti, 2018
30 min
An observational study of fisherwomen on Hangar Island in the Persian Gulf.
La Roue de la Vie
Sahar Salahshoor, 2009
26 min
A portrait of Nasrin, a Tehran taxi driver defying social norms to support her son
REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIES OF BAHMAN WHO LOVED LEILA
PEUPLE DE L’EAU
LA ROUE DE LA VIE
REVIEW
In Revolutionary Memories of Bahman Who Loved Leila, director Farah Sharifi composes a cinematic love letter to lost youth. The film interweaves fragments of home movies with images from the streets of Tehran in 1978, when the city was in bloodshed. The archival material evokes both the romantic and the tragic; revolution entangles with a first love, illustrating how personal histories are shaped by political upheaval. Watching Bahman reach for Leila amid collapsing structures, one feels the chergui wind not only as a climatic force but as a metaphor for the way revolutions sweep through private lives.
Peuple de l’Eau turns its gaze away from the capital to Hangar Island, a fishing community far from the centres of power. Director Azadeh Bizargiti observes women who cast nets in the Persian Gulf, invisible yet indispensable figures in the coastal economy. The film’s quiet rhythm mirrors the ebb and flow of tides. Without narration, we watch hands untangle nets, braid hair, scrub octopus ink. The labour of these women has been historically marginalised, but the film invites us to witness their strength and resilience. In the context of the Chergui series, the piece underscores how economic survival is inseparable from gender politics.
Peuple de l’Eau turns its gaze away from the capital to Hangar Island, a fishing community far from the centres of power. Director Azadeh Bizargiti observes women who cast nets in the Persian Gulf, invisible yet indispensable figures in the coastal economy. The film’s quiet rhythm mirrors the ebb and flow of tides. Without narration, we watch hands untangle nets, braid hair, scrub octopus ink. The labour of these women has been historically marginalised, but the film invites us to witness their strength and resilience. In the context of the Chergui series, the piece underscores how economic survival is inseparable from gender politics.
La
Roue de la Vie offers a different kind of motion: that of a taxi cutting through Tehran’s dense streets. Sahar Salahshoor follows Nasrin, a taxi driver navigating not just traffic but also social expectations. In Iran it is rare for women to drive taxis; behind the wheel, Nasrin becomes both observer and observed, a figure of autonomy and defiance. Her passengers recount their daily struggles, and the car becomes a microcosm of a society in transition. The film is intimate yet quietly radical, showing how one woman makes a living on her own terms.
Programmers Lina Abdelli and Bouchra Assou noted that the inclusion of La Roue de la Vie was deliberate. While the first two films centre on collective struggle, this third piece was chosen to challenge the predominant male gaze, restoring centrality to women in revolutionary narratives. Abdelli stressed that the work’s intimacy makes it one of the most vulnerable films in the program; out of concern for the protagonist’s privacy it has only been publicly screened a handful of times. Its presence in Chergui, she argued, underscores the courage and importance of documenting deeply personal stories.
Programmers Lina Abdelli and Bouchra Assou noted that the inclusion of La Roue de la Vie was deliberate. While the first two films centre on collective struggle, this third piece was chosen to challenge the predominant male gaze, restoring centrality to women in revolutionary narratives. Abdelli stressed that the work’s intimacy makes it one of the most vulnerable films in the program; out of concern for the protagonist’s privacy it has only been publicly screened a handful of times. Its presence in Chergui, she argued, underscores the courage and importance of documenting deeply personal stories.
AL-HAYYA MAGAZINE
COMMUNITY AS METHOD
As Chergui launched with it’s first chapter Chronique iranienne, l’intime est politique, the screening was followed by a conversation with Maya Moumne; co‑founder of Safar Magazine, editor‑in‑chief of Al Hayya and based between Beirut and Montréal. Moumne’s presence added another layer of transnational conversation: her magazines challenge normative frameworks of feminism and insist on the visibility of anti‑racist, queer thought across the Arab region. When she speaks of print as an act of resistance, you feel the same wind that animated the films.
During the Q&A, Maya Moumne praised the program’s complexity, noting that the three films allow audiences to revisit narratives of oppression in Iran and the Middle East. She highlighted how these documentaries navigate love, labour and longing; how the characters’ everyday actions are shaped by, but also actively shape, the political environments around them. Moumne pointed out that visibility is political: even when women do not describe themselves as activists, their existence and labour are inherently feminist and political acts. Her remarks invited viewers to look beyond overt slogans and recognise activism in the simple act of working, loving and surviving.
AL-HAYYA MAGAZINE ISSUE 4
EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE
LAND AND BODY
AGENCY
WHY THIS MATTERS
In an era when cinema is often consumed alone on personal devices, initiatives like Chergui remind us that film can still be a communal act. By bringing together a Montréal movie house, a Parisian collective and a guest from Beirut, Dhakira has demonstrated how cultural activism can bridge distances. The series emphasises feminist and queer perspectives, not as niche interests but as central to understanding social change.
La Clef’s history; saved by volunteers, supported by global filmmakers; shows that community‑run cinemas can challenge capital‑driven cultural production. Dhakira’s mission to uncover marginalized North African cinema extends that ethic. Together with Maya Moumne’s radical publishing work, they illustrate a politics of solidarity that crosses nations, disciplines and languages. The chergui wind may be hot and dry, but here it symbolises nourishment: a breath that carries stories from Tehran to Montréal, from Hangar Island to Paris, from the printed page to the cinema screen.
As we left the screening room, the summer heat felt charged with possibility. Chergui is not just a film program; it is an invitation to imagine a cinematic community that is borderless, feminist and unapologetically collective.
La Clef’s history; saved by volunteers, supported by global filmmakers; shows that community‑run cinemas can challenge capital‑driven cultural production. Dhakira’s mission to uncover marginalized North African cinema extends that ethic. Together with Maya Moumne’s radical publishing work, they illustrate a politics of solidarity that crosses nations, disciplines and languages. The chergui wind may be hot and dry, but here it symbolises nourishment: a breath that carries stories from Tehran to Montréal, from Hangar Island to Paris, from the printed page to the cinema screen.
As we left the screening room, the summer heat felt charged with possibility. Chergui is not just a film program; it is an invitation to imagine a cinematic community that is borderless, feminist and unapologetically collective.
WORDS: Solveig Wilson Carrier
@solveigcarrier
@solveigcarrier
2025
CONTACT
ABOUT
ABOUT