Karin Albou is a French director, screenwriter and actress.
Early life
Karin Albou was born on March 12, 1968 Neuilly-sur-Seine to Algerian immigrant parents. Her mother was only 16 when she was born. Albou was raised in the Jewish faith. In 1999 she moved to Tunisia to settle down for one year. She went back to Paris and started her career as a filmmaker. She also started a career as a writer and published her first novel in 2010. ("La Grande Fête", édition Jacqueline Chambon. Translated in Italian : "La grande festa" Oedipus edizioni, traduzione di Maria Teresa Fiore As a child, Karin Albou was always finding ways to be an artist; involved with dance and singing. After high school, Karin continued to study dance, but also studied Hebrew French and Arabic literature, English, drama and eventually enrolled in film school in Paris. She studied screening writing in Paris but discovered while taking classes at École Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle she wanted to be a director. After she graduated, she started her journey as a director with her first short film “Hush!” establishing the beginning of her remarkable career path.
Career
Albou made her feature film debut in 2005 with Little Jerusalem which debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in the International Critics' Week. Despite being Albou's first feature film Albou was disqualified from competing for the Camera d'Or, awarded to the best first film playing at the festival, because she had previously directed a made-for-TV movie. In 2008 Albou released her second feature film The Wedding Song, a Holocaust drama set in Tunisia in 1942 that was loosely inspired by letters Albou's paternal grandmother had sent to her husband during the war when he was sent to a labour camp. The film played multiple Jewish festivals but failed to garner mainstream attention something Albou attributed to the many scenes of graphic nudity in the film. Albou's third feature film My Shortest Love Affair was released in 2015. Albou also co-starred in the film as a woman in her 40s who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with a former fling and who decides to try to make a go of it with the father of her future child. Karin Albou is a French-Algerian female director, writer, editor, producer and actress. Karin wrote and directed Aïd El Kebir, La petite Jérusalem, Yasmine et la Révolution, Ma plus courte histoire d’amour – which she also produced, Le chant des mariées and Corps de dame. She is also an established actress, starring in her films including Ma plus courte histoire d’amour as Louisa Witz, Le chant des mariées as Tita and Corps de dame as a doctor. Karin Albou was the second assistant editor for director David Rozenberg's 1994 for feature, Shortcomings.
Styles and themes
Karin Albou is a very distinct director, one of the ways to distinguish her is the themes in her films. Knowing Karin's heritage explains some of the themes she chooses to cover. Raised in the Jewish faith, Karin's films explore the lasting trauma of the Holocaust – French colonialism, secret identity, exile, assimilation, and double diaspora. Karin explores and challenges the rules of religion and marriages. Karin directs My Shortest Love Affair with themes of love, sex and family values. Her themes involve bringing intimate scenes of female spaces, tackling sexual dysfunction in marriage and uncovering how culture impacts the idea of romance. Karin keeps these themes consistent in her films and portrays them with her unique film style. Her style focuses on the representation of women. In The Wedding Song, the film style displays a lesbian, female, and Orientalist gaze.
