Bittere Sonne

Saïd is recruited in the late 1950s in a mountain village in Algeria for the then-thriving automotive industry in France. After five years of hardship, he is able to bring his family to his social housing in a suburb of Paris. Nadscha and her three daughters travel with joy and optimism to the new world. Saïd's older brother Kader is already married to Ève, a Frenchwoman from a middle-class family.

After Nadscha becomes pregnant again, she and Saïd decide to give the baby to Kader and Ève, as they cannot have children. However, unexpectedly, Nadscha gives birth to twins. Thus, Ève and Kader become the parents of Daniel, while Amir grows up with Nadscha and Saïd. The fact that they are brothers remains a closely guarded family secret.

Lilia Hassaine creates a vivid, sensitively drawn picture of life in the now troubled suburbs of Paris from the 1950s to the late 1980s in a multifaceted panorama, portraying the strong mothers and their self-assured daughters who seek to realize their dreams in their new homeland.