Daring to Love: Nadir Moknèche’s Viva Laldjérie and Laïla Marrakchi’s Marock

This article offers a Lacan- and Freud-inspired analysis of desire versus love in Nadir Moknèche’s Viva Laldjérie (2004) and Laïla Marrakchi’s Marock (2005). Both films call into the question the concept of the Other, by stressing its changeability in developing postcolonial North Africa. Set in postcivil war Algiers, Viva Laldjérie addresses taboo issues, including prostitution and extramarital and homosexual love, while stressing the baseness of intimate relationships that are exclusively based on sexual drives. Marock, by contrast, adheres to the principles of Verliebtheit, jouissance, Wunschgedanke, and courtly love, given the hero’s tragic death at the end of the film.