The cinematic family gathers today in Algiers, a city that holds in its memory a history of dialogue and always opens its doors to the major questions that occupy humanity. In a world whose features are changing rapidly, film remains one of the most vital spaces for reflecting on people’s destinies, rethinking the meaning of living together, and addressing the responsibility of the individual towards their environment, society, and history.
Art, when it approaches human causes, transforms into a sensory knowledge that transcends the boundaries of theoretical analysis. The image possesses the ability to reveal what is hidden and to confer upon small details their deep moral weight. And cinema, especially that which is committed in this sense, contributes to shaping a broader human consciousness, offering the audience an opportunity to listen to the multiple layers of reality, including those that do not appear in official discourses or dominant narratives.
This festival comes to reinforce a cultural vision that sees creativity as a force for building society, a space that allows for the multiplicity of voices, and preserves the status of critical thinking in our public life. When culture embraces the diversity of experiences and the variety of approaches, the artistic act becomes a partner in rooting the values of openness, justice, and mutual respect. Under the roof of this festival, works coming from distant places stand side-by-side, carrying with them the memory of their peoples, their questions, and their challenges to the world. The viewer encounters experiences they may not be familiar with, and rediscovers their capacity for empathy and for reading events from a broader and deeper perspective. Thus, in addition to the aesthetic expression that cinema offers, it also establishes an intellectual practice that lights the way toward a more mature understanding of our shared truth.
Algeria, with its well-known cultural history and its continuous civilizational role, maintains its support for the arts that grant the human being the right to narrative and the right to presence. Every film screened here is an addition to our symbolic capital and to a humanist cultural project that believes knowledge is renewed when it interacts with creativity, and that dialogue flourishes when it finds its language in image and sound.
I salute the filmmakers and all those responsible for organizing this event, which restores the value of art in a time when local and global challenges intertwine. I hope that the days of the festival will be an opportunity for interaction, for raising questions, and for expanding the horizon of human thought.
Welcome to Algiers, And may cinema be a bridge towards a more conscious and humane future.
Dr Malika Bendouda
Minister of Culture and the Arts
