In Roqia, the debut feature by Algerian filmmaker Yanis Koussim, horror is not just a genre—it's a vessel for memory, faith, and trauma. Premiered in the International Critics' Week at Venice in 2025, the film has quickly become one of the most talked-about entries of the festival. At its center is Ali Namous, who delivers a performance as complex as the film itself, anchoring its haunting tale with raw vulnerability and quiet intensity.
Setting the stage
Roqia, produced by Supernova Films with co-productions spanning Algeria, France, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, spans two timelines: the early 1990s and a more contemporary period. In 1992, Ahmed (Ali Namous) survives a car accident that leaves him with amnesia and bandaged wounds. He returns to his village to rediscover nothing is as it should be—his wife is a stranger, his children distant, his own identity fractured. Mysterious visitors whisper in unknown tongues at night.
In the present day, a spiritual leader—Raqi—struggles with Alzheimer's, while the disciple worries an ancient evil may be unleashed as violence intensifies and possessions multiply. As Ahmed grapples with fragmented memory, the film asks: at what point does forgetting become dangerous?
Ali Namous: the actor who holds the mirror
From the first moments onscreen, Namous's portrayal of Ahmed grips the viewer. The face hidden beneath bandages, the confusion, the fleeting recognition—he embodies both fragility and danger. In the 1990s storyline, he is not just a victim of trauma but an enigma: strange behavior, disappearance, and the horror inflicted or endured. In the present strand, that trauma echoes in subtle tremors, in fear of what might lie dormant.
What is most striking about Namous's performance is how he balances Ahmed's vulnerability with intuition—his questions about identity, his longing for connection, his terror at forgetting. It is a performance that relies not on spectacle but on internal chaos. Critics observing Roqia at Venice have flagged Ali Namous as a breakout figure—they say he carries the weight of the film's emotional core.
Horror, history, and memory
Roqia is not purely supernatural—it is deeply political and historical. Set against the backdrop of Algeria's “Black Decade” in the 1990s, the film draws parallels between personal and collective memory. Namous's Ahmed is a man whose memory is erased and then threatened again. The film explores displacement, the horror within, and the boundaries between faith and fanaticism. The whispering visitors, the strange tongues, the ghostly visitors—they all suggest that what is buried is never truly gone.
Reviews praise Koussim for using the horror genre to confront Algeria's trauma without overt polemic. It's cinematic ritual: spiritual, eerie, intimate. Ahmed's journey becomes a metaphor for societies trying to remember and avoid repeating past horrors. In these shades of memory and possession, Ali Namous helps carry that metaphor, giving flesh to wounds that cannot heal easily.
Atmosphere, direction, and supporting cast
Yanis Koussim's direction is meticulous. The cinematography by Jean-Marie Delorme captures both the grotesque and the intimate—decaying landscapes, dimly lit interiors, the tense spaces between speech and silence. Sound design, editing, and costume create a sense of lingering dread: noises in the night, chanting in a strange language, a face behind bandages.
The supporting cast amplifies Namous's performance. Mostefa Djadjam as Raqi brings a sorrowful weight; Akram Djeghim as the disciple introduces tension between loyalty and fear; Hanaa Mansour, Lydia Hanni, and others round out this world of suspicion, faith, and longing.
Why Roqia matters—and why Namous emerges
For international audiences, Roqia serves as both a horror film and a social mirror. It's not often that the horror genre so directly engages with questioning memory, trauma, identity, and the cost of forgetting. In a post-pandemic, post-conflict world, where many societies are grappling with their own pasts, Roqia resonates.
Ali Namous, in this, is one of the reasons Roqia is being noticed. He anchors the supernatural in human emotion—he gives voice to amnesia, to the terror of loss of identity, but also to the yearning to remember, to reconnect. His performance marks him as an actor to watch, not only in Algeria but in the global film scene.
Final thoughts
Roqia is more than a debut—it's a bold, unsettling film that crosses genres: horror, drama, history. It challenges us to consider what we owe to memory, to faith, to trauma. And in its heart is Ahmed—flawed, haunted, fragile—played by Ali Namous with a depth that lingers.
For those attending Venice 2025, Roqia offers more than thrills. It demands reflection. And for Ali Namous, it marks a step forward—a first feature, yes, but one that establishes his presence as central to the future of Algerian cinema.
