French travel documentary exposes Algeria’s police state

The Long awaited for Algeria episode of the French documentary, J’irai dormir chez vous (I will come to sleep in your house), was aired on Mar 8 revealing a closed-off and impoverished country, where locals are banned by omnipresent police from interacting with foreigners or tourists.

The documentary producer Antoine De Maximy has spent two-weeks in Algiers without being able to find people to host him, save an exception in the restive Kabylie region.

This was the hardest experience for Antoine De Maximy who all the time was shadowed by security agents intimidating potential hosts and obstructing the spontaneous experience of a documentary that reflects ways of life and hospitality of different people across the world.

The nearly two-decade long documentary featured episodes in 65 countries. Nowhere had De Maximy been openly harassed by security services as he was in Algiers, where he was openly banned from spending the night with ordinary Algerians.

In Ghardaia and Djanet, two desert cities, De Maximy was followed by security guards, asked for permits to film every-now and then and banned from traveling to desert alone.

Carrying his shoulder camera, he could film some conversations with nosey security agent who intervened whenever De Maximy found a potential host. In Ghardaia an agent told him its is banned to visit locals, while in Djanet he was asked to stay in his hotel or find a travel agency to stay with.

The arguments put forward by authorities is that De Maximy could be lost in the desert or get food poisoning by eating in a local home.

These arguments were dismissed by Antoine De Maximy as well as critical journalists such as Abdou Semmar, who deplored a post-Hirak Algeria where people lack means to buy meat to welcome a guest for a meal and where the state is banning people from receiving foreign tourists.

The documentary reflects an image of an Algeria in chaos where security services control the daily lives and interactions involving locals and tourists. It thwarts any tourists from a country that brags about defeating terrorism while warning tourists from the terrorism threat as was the case with Antoine De Maximy in Djanet.

Neither in big cities such as Algiers and Oran, nor in smaller ones such as restive Ghardaia and Djanet could Antoine De Maximy complete his job of a journalist/tourist looking forward to engage in spontaneity and authenticity with local Algerians due to an omnipresent police.

“We would like to migrate after highschool…there are no jobs,” a Youngman in the Kabylie region told Antoine De Maximy.

In Oran, some 20 youngman were filmed singing “Oh tourists we are not good,” after Antoine De Maximy bought them sandwiches.

In Djanet, the reporter was asked for money if he wanted to be hosted at a taxi drivers’ house in order to buy foodstuff and prepare dinner for him! Police intervened to foil this paid invitation that shows the scale of poverty in “new Algeria” as the military rulers prefer to call the post-Hirak era.