Algiers, June 1955. Khadidja has left Kabylie to join her older brother Malek in Algiers. On this first day in the city, and while waiting to be enrolled in school, she accompanies him to the market, where he has a small fruit and vegetable stall. But the day doesn’t go as planned: following an altercation with the police, Malek is arrested. Khadidja finds herself alone.
Set in 1889 France, Dodin Bouffant is a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie. They share a long history of gastronomy and love but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
It all begins in the early 60s, in a slum just outside Paris inhabited by Algerian immigrants. Malika is 5, and her mum has just bought her a brand-new pair of sandals. They're so white that the little girl can't keep her eyes off them, and doesn't see the reversing truck. Then begin years of hospital, operations, suffering and struggle. Years far from her family, during which the little Muslim girl, in the hands of Catholic nurses and nuns, discovers music and singing at mass. From that point on, fighting the racism of French society as well as the enduring prejudices of her own community, Malika follows her dream and moves mountains to become the woman everyone will one day call "the diva of the ghetto".
Mhamed Arezki, né en 1984, est un acteur français. Il vit dans le 20e arrondissement.