Rabah Laradji

Director

Bordj Menaïel, Algéria

January 1, 1943

Biography

Rabah Laradji (رباح. لارادجي), born in 1943 in Bordj Menaïel (wilaya of Boumerdès) in Algeria, is an Algerian film director and screenwriter. He studied film at the INC (National Institute of Cinema of Algiers 1964-1966) in Ben Aknoun, in the western suburbs of Algiers. The school produced the only cohort of filmmakers such as Farouk Beloufa, Sid Ali Mazif, Merzak Allouache, Mohammed Lamine Merbah, and Sid Ali Fettar before its closure. After graduating, Rabah Laradji was admitted to the ONCIC (National Office for Cinema Commerce and Industry) as an assistant director. He contributed to the production of several feature films, both documentaries and fiction. He directed his first short fiction film in 35mm in 1969 and discovered documentary filmmaking. He went on to direct a whole series of these, including some docu-fiction films. In 1981, Rabah Laradji finally directed his first feature-length fiction film, "Un Toit, Une Famille," which won the Best Actor Award for Faouzi Saichi at the Carthage Film Festival in 1982, while playing a role for the first time in his life, without any prior experience.