MISKINA
(MISKINA, LA PAUVRE)
Thursday, October 13 – Truffaut Theatre – 12:55 pm
(Screening ends at 2:45 pm)
Special Screening – The American French Film Festival Awards
FICTION / COMEDY
TV SERIES
Presented in Association with:
Amazon Prime Video
Women in Film
North American Theatrical Premiere | TV Series | France | 2022 | Comedy | 8 x 26 min | Episodes 1, 2, 3 & 4 | In French with English subtitles
Directed by: Melha Bedia, Anthony Marciano
Written by: Melha Bedia, Yoann Gromb, Xavier Lacaille, Mehdi Fikri, Paul Rotman
Produced by: Nicolas Duval Adassowski, Margaux Bourdin Marciano (Quad Productions), Amazon Studios
Cinematography: Emmanuel Soyer
Film Editing: Guillaume Lauras, Grégoire Sivan, Romain Boilleau, Marie-Pierre Frappier
Original Score: Thomas Couzinier, Frédéric Kooshmanian
Cast: Melha Bedia (Fara), Shirine Boutella, Hakim Jemili, Victor Belmondo, Xavier Lacaille, Alka Balbir
International Sales: Amazon Prime Video
Original Broadcast: Amazon Prime Video, September 30, 2022
Thirty years old, overweight, no job, no husband, and still living at home… In France, they call Fara a “Tanguy“. In Italy, she’d be a bamboccioni. In her French-Algerian family, she’s a miskina, the object of pity and scorn. Yet, she’s the resourceful one, the one everyone relies on to solve all their problems. But what about her problems ? Fara misses her estranged father; she dreams of turning his rusty old van into a food truck and hitting the road. On top of that — or maybe at the bottom of it — Fara can’t seem to admit that she’s in love with her childhood best friend, Nassim… who’s now smitten with her cousin. A deadpan sit-com romp, immersed in the colorful world of Algerian immigrant culture in France, Miskina also offers an unflinching glimpse into the psyche of a young woman who is paralyzed, projecting societal standards onto herself and deeming herself unworthy of the happiness and love that only seem to be available to others.
Born in Paris to Algerian immigrant parents, Melha Bedia is the younger sister of French actor/writer/director Ramzy Bedia. She first attempted a career as a soccer player with the Paris Saint Germain football club, before becoming a stand-up comedian, and eventually landing small parts in film comedies, like Tout schuss (2016), Pattaya (2016), Hibou (2016), and Bad Buzz (2017). In 2020, she wrote, directed and starred in her first short film, Le fumoir. Her big break came that same year, when she wrote and starred in the feature film Ballsy Girl (2020) opposite Valerie Lemercier, which premiered at the Alpe d’Huez Film Festival. She then played herself in the comedy Simply Black (2020). This year Bedia starred in Frédéric Quiring’s La très très grande classe and Baya Kasmi’s Youssef Salem a du succès. Miskina, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in September, is Bedia’s first foray into creating, co-writing and starring in her own series.
