When festivals are virtual and word of mouth can’t spread as smoothly, it can be tricky to gauge buzz around films. With
Souvenir Souvenir, however, there’s no doubt. The new film by Bastien Dubois is on a roll: in the last few weeks, it has been named best animated short at Sundance and Clermont-Ferrand, two blue-chip festivals, and just yesterday, it was nominated for an Annie Award.
The film addresses the brutal Algerian War, an eight-year decolonization struggle that resulted in Algeria’s independence from France in 1962. The conflict will be unfamiliar to many viewers outside those countries; even in France, the events of that time are often veiled by willlful amnesia.