FEATURE FILM

Café Désirs

Since the early 1990s, when a bloody civil war broke out in Algeria between the government and Islamist militants, the concept of haram—the forbidden—has demanded the rigid separation of men and women. Café Désirs is a fascinating look at a generation of young, single Algerian men as they come of age in the ancient city of Constantine, trapped between strict religious virtue and sexual desire. Three eloquent guides take us into the male-only world of cafés and hookah lounges, to talk openly about their lives, their frustrations with work and the social dangers of living in a sexually repressed society. It's a world especially fraught for those pursuing same-sex relationships, which are illegal and severely punished. Café Désirs is an engaging and complex exploration of male sexuality and gender politics in a country still struggling with the aftermath of civil war and colonialism.