While some people watch birds or spot trains, the prominent Algerian intellectual Ameziane Ferhani spots trees. He is fascinated by Jacaranda mimosifolia, a species native to South America, whose purple flowers blaze against the white buildings of Algiers. Ferhani, a well-known journalist and writer, describes them as “botanical fireworks.” His son Hassen decides to document his father’s attempt to create a literary map of Algiers through its jacaranda trees, and gets more and more involved in his father’s mission himself.
By interweaving conversations with his eloquent father and footage from old family videos, Hassen Ferhani creates both a poetic portrait of a city in which it is often hard to keep the imagination alive and a loving tribute to a man for whom dreaming was a form of resistance. The jacarandas were an encouragement to keep looking closely amid ugliness and destruction.
Stills
