Roqia

Description

Roqia is an Algerian arthouse horror film that blends supernatural terror with social drama.

The narrative unfolds across two timelines: in 1993, a soldier named Ahmed returns home after a crash with a bandaged face and amnesia; in the present day, an elderly exorcist battling Alzheimer’s confronts an ancient evil.

For viewers familiar with the “Black Decade” (Algeria’s brutal 1990s civil war), the film becomes a searing commentary on how a nation tries to bury its traumatic past, while the “demons” of radicalization and violence never truly disappear. The soldier’s bandages stand as a haunting symbol of a generation’s erased identity.
In Roqia, demonic possession transcends genre tropes to become a direct metaphor for societal fracture and Algeria’s unhealed war trauma.

The film deliberately avoids a traditional musical score, relying entirely on immersive sound design and distorted voices to craft its unsettling atmosphere.