Front Row

Up bright and early with their pet in tow, Zohra Bouderbala (Fatiha Ouared) and her five children are heading to the beach. This is not a drill! In Algiers, the coveted front row spot waits for no one, but it’s not this family’s first time having to beat the summer seaside crowds. The unmotivated and out-of-luck masses who arrive too late will be left to a viewless laze in the sun, the alleged horizon blocked by a fortress of parasols and flowing canopies.

With their site secured, and their watermelons buried, relaxation is a near promise. That is, until Hakim (Nabil Asli), the uptight though easily influenced beach attendant, dares to place the late-arriving Kadouri family right in front of the Bouderbalas. This absolute declaration of war sends Zohra and her neighbourhood nemesis, Safia Kadouri (Bouchra Roy), into a passive-aggressive tailspin. Meanwhile, right under their noses, the schemes of star-crossed teenagers will test the waters of emerging autonomy.

For his 19th feature film — marking 62 years of cinema in an independent Algeria — prominent writer-director Merzak Allouache (Divine Wind, TIFF ’18) opts this time for an upbeat dramedy about rival matriarchs behaving badly at the beach. Front Row celebrates Allouache’s adept imagination for eclectic characters in a heartwarming overture to the quirks and quandaries of shoreline social life.

NATALEAH HUNTER-YOUNG

Content advisory: violence