Keltoum (Aïcha Adjouri)

Keltoum (Aïcha Adjouri)

Born: February 3, 1916
Died: November 11, 2010
in Blida, Algéria
Keltoum, whose real name is Aïcha Adjouri, is an Algerian actress, born February 4, 1916 in Blida, and died November 11, 2010 in Algiers. Figure and dean of Algerian theater and cinema, Keltoum crosses paths with Mahieddine Bachtarzi who recruits her for a small role as a dancer in an operetta. In 1937, she co-starred with Rachid Ksentini in Marriage by Telephone and appeared in most of the shows on the famous "Mahieddine tours" in Algeria, North Africa and Europe.

It also happened that the rigors of the colonial law of the time came to sanction the actress. In its edition of March 21, 1950, the daily newspaper Algiers Republican reports a fine of 50,000 francs imposed on Mahieddine by the municipality, the layoff for a month of the actress Keltoum and the ban on performing on the stage. of the Opera made to the Tunisian singer Ali Riahi, on the grounds that the piece El-Ouadjib and the songs during the performance included passages deemed "seditious". (Memoirs of M. Bachetarzi)

Member of the Arab troupe of the Opera of Algiers when it was created in 1947 under the direction of Bachtarzi, alongside many stars including Mohammed Touri, Djelloul Bachdjerrah, Réda Falaki and Mustapha Kateb, she interrupted her activities in 1956 with the independance War. She is back on stage with the creation, in 1963, of the National Theater in the company of Mustapha Kateb, Mohamed Boudia, Abderrahmane Kaki, Allel el-Mouhib and Abdelkader Alloula. Until the turn of 1990, she will have played in several dozen plays. After Mort d'un commercial voyageur by Arthur Miller by Fouzia Aït El-Hadj (1987), followed by La Maison de Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca, staged by Allel el-Mouhib, his last appearance dates back to 1991 , with the cover of El Bouaboune (Les Concierges) by Rouiched.

At the cinema, she appeared in La Septième Porte by French filmmaker André Swobada with, in the main roles of Leila and Ali, on the one hand, Maria Casarès and Georges Marchal for the French version and, on the other hand, Keltoum and Bechir Gabsi for the Arabic version. She will shine especially in a magnificent silent and stripped interpretation of mother courage in the Vent des Aurès by Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina in 1966. Asked about his meeting with the actress, Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina confided that it was on the recommendation of André Swobada whom he met and chose Keltoum for the Vent des Aurès. She will play again in Hassan Terro (1968), December (1972) and Chronicle of the Brazen Years (1974) by the same director, then in Les Déracinés (Beni Hendel) by Lamine Merbah (1976), Le Vent du sud (Rih el- djanoub, 1975) and Hassan Taxi (1982) by Mohamed Slim Riad, The Roaring Years of the Twist by Mahmoud Zemmouri (1986) or even Hassan Niya by Ghaouti Bendedouche (1989).

A figure of theater and cinema in Algeria, Keltoum was given a tribute in March 2010 at the initiative of the association of filmmakers Lumières. Ill, she could not be present at the ceremony. Keltoum was buried in the cemetery of El Alia.

Movies for Keltoum (Aïcha Adjouri)...

Hassan Terro in the Resistance
Title: Hassan Terro in the Resistance
Character: Aïcha
Released: January 2, 1989
Type: Movie
Directed by Moussa Haddad.
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Cry of Stone
Title: Cry of Stone
Character: Lala Fatma
Released: January 14, 1987
Type: Movie
Directed by Abderrahmane Bouguermouh.
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Les Folles Années du Twist
Title: Les Folles Années du Twist
Character: La mère de Boualem
Released: February 26, 1986
Type: Movie
A small town in Algeria, in the years 1960-1962. Two young idle boys and rock fans, Boualem and Salah, try to survive in the turmoil of war, taking great care not to get involved.
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Le Retour
Title: Le Retour
Character: Zohra
Released: January 1, 1979
Type: Movie
In the early 1970s, Lakhdar, an Algerian peasant, is forced to leave his desert land and his family for France, but immigration weighs on him and he dreams of returning. This day arrives, he walks in Paris, events decide otherwise.
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The Uprooted
Title: The Uprooted
Character: La mère
Released: March 1, 1977
Type: Movie
In 1880, in colonized Algeria, it was decided that the Algerian peasants of the Ouarsenis mountains would see their lands dispossessed in favor of the French colonists. Two methods were used to achieve this, either by sheer force or by a ploy forcing the fellahs to pay fines too high to be paid. The uprooted must then leave for the cities, swelling the mass of proletarians in the slums ...
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Chronicle of the Years of Fire
Title: Chronicle of the Years of Fire
Released: November 26, 1975
Type: Movie
A meticulous chronicle of the evolution of the Algerian national movement from 1939 until the outbreak of the revolution on November 1, 1954, the film unequivocally demonstrates that the "Algerian War" is not an accident of history, but a slow process of suffering and warlike revolts, uninterrupted, from the start of colonization in 1830, until this "Red All Saints' Day" of November 1, 1954. At its center, Ahmed gradually awakens to political awareness against colonization, under the gaze of his son, a symbol of the new Algeria, and that of Miloud, half-mad haranguer, half-prophet, incarnation of Popular memory of the revolt, the liberation of Algeria and its people.
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Wind from the South
Title: Wind from the South
Released: January 2, 1975
Type: Movie
Néfissa, a student in Algiers, returns to her village in the south in the summer. Her father wants her to marry the mayor but she wants to continue her studies. Confronting her father and the opinion of the villagers who do not understand her, she decides to flee to Algiers. The shepherd Rabah discovering her wounded and lost in the mountains, has her treated by her mother. In contact with Nefissa, Rabat becomes aware of his exploited condition and discovers the possibilities offered to him by the cooperatives of the agrarian revolution. The two young people will go through the decisive stage together which will allow them to escape obscurantism and exploitation. Based on the novel "Le vent du sud" by Abdelhamid Benahouga
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La Mission
Title: La Mission
Released: January 2, 1971
Type: Movie
An Algerian peasant (fellah), crushed by the soldiers of the French colonial army, decides to resist. His young wife finds herself, despite herself, also enlisted in the Algerian resistance to flee the atrocities of harsh colonial persecution.
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The Winds of the Aures
Title: The Winds of the Aures
Character: Mother
Released: June 8, 1967
Type: Movie
Le Vent des Aurès – the first road movie of Algerian cinema – describes the transformations of the daily life of the Algerian people during the destructive French occupation, then during the war of liberation. While military repression is in full swing, a peasant woman finds herself alone in her mountain home when her only son is kidnapped by French soldiers shortly after her husband's death during a raid. One day, seeing a dead chicken, which she considers a bad omen, she decides to leave home and embarks on a painful journey through the mountains. Accompanied by a couple of chickens, she moves from one detention camp to another in a desperate search for her missing son. The film is inspired by the events experienced by the director's family.
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Hassan Terro
Title: Hassan Terro
Character: Wife
Released: January 2, 1967
Type: Movie
While he tries by all means to stay out of the bloody upheavals caused by the battle of Algiers, Hassan, an honest and naive father, unknowingly offers hospitality to a mujahid actively sought by the army. French. A series of events and misunderstandings quickly catapult him to the forefront, presenting him under the pseudonym “Hassan Terro”, a great fictitious terrorist who would have sworn the doom of the French army...
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So Young a Peace
Title: So Young a Peace
Released: January 2, 1965
Type: Movie
The first fictional feature film produced in Algeria after independence, this film addresses one of the most worrying problems: that of childhood. Children, freedom regained, do not yet know how to play “at peace”, they naturally play “at war”.
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La parole est au témoin
Title: La parole est au témoin
Released: November 17, 1963
Type: Movie
Mustapha, a cab driver in Paris, charges a customer in a hurry, without realizing that he is in a hurry to escape his pursuers after robbing a jewelry store. The next day, reading the newspapers, Mustapha becomes aware of the role he has played in this affair, and would gladly assist the police if a fortuitous incident didn't make him fear the criminals' vengeance. It's a cruel dilemma in which he is both suspected by some and threatened by others. Weak but honest, he manages to get out of this predicament at the risk of his life!
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C'est pour demain
Title: C'est pour demain
Released: January 2, 1961
Type: Movie
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The Seventh Door
Title: The Seventh Door
Released: September 27, 1947
Type: Movie
An old man about to die gives all his fortune to a young beggar he meets in an Arabian town. He takes him to his house (now the poor man's property) and he strongly advises him not to open one of the doors, the seventh door. "I could throw the key into the sea" says the young lad" No use, you'd dive to get it back". The young man is curious and he cannot resist temptation: he opens the forbidden door. A strange world is waiting for him where a girl, Leila, will be his guide .