A Female Cabby in Sidi Bel-Abbes

A Female Cabby in Sidi Bel-Abbes is a documentary that deals with the only woman taxi driver in Algeria. The reason for why her being a taxi driver is so significant and controversial has to do with the fact that the government is highly restrictive of the female sex obtaining their rights; they try to postpone female empowerment as much as possible and frown upon the female sex in general. The audience can sense this whenever there are images of the men looking upon the female protagonists of this film. The suspense in this film is felt very acutely, even though barely anything happens in the movie. All the audience sees throughout the movie is the woman cabdriver and her friends chitchatting about how ridiculous the situation is over there in Algeria. The audience gets a sense that these heroic figures are constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure that no one but us (the audience) are watching them tell their tales of plight. That’s all these women are doing. It’s ridiculous to believe that what these women are doing is so heinous; but that’s what the men over in Algeria feel.
It’s a terrifying movie because we as an audience do not know why we are so on edge until we hear of the deaths of the teachers. This is a metaphor for how one cannot do anything about the situation in Algeria until it’s too late. That’s certainly what these women feel, and yet they perservere anyway even with threats against their lives. This certainly kept my interest going, even though there wasn’t much “action” in the film. But isn’t that the whole point of what is going on politically in Algeria. This imposition, as it were, is something that is very hard to fight against because it is so subtle in appearance. It’s only simple ignorance as it were on the men’s part, right? That is the terrifying quality that is in this film. There are no resolutions in this movie because the story in that region is just starting to emerge for one to fully comprehend and do something about politically. The great quality of particularly the woman cab driver is that she always knows what to do and is not intimidated in the least bit by the male opressors in Algeria.
The problems that the filmmakers faced must have been trying to get some kind of flow in the footage that they shot. After all, all these filmmakers could shoot is the testimonials from the women. How does this build up suspense? Yet, I feel that A Female Cabby in Sidi-Bel-Abbes is one of the most suspenseful films I have ever seen. The suspense is the kind that is ever pervading and not really apparent. It’s like an invisible monster that is slowly seeping to the surface and killing all of the oppressed in its sight.
Really, I didn’t detect so much of a relationship between the filmmaker’s and the people on the screen. For the most part, there is simply a camera placed in the taxi and that is all. Perhaps this builds up suspense as well; it definitely provides a sense of cool detatchment on the part of the filmmakers. I think this actually adds to the films quality.
One particular scene that is truly terrifying is when the taxi driver hears that there is a rumour that she has been killed by someone. This strong heroic woman starts to cry in front of camera. Her whole purpose for being in this documentary in the first place, for showing how one fights oppression-for encouraging action-just went out of the window at this moment and she knows it. These oppressive men are crushing this woman’s spirit without even being present and she also realizes this as well and stops crying.