FranceAlgeria
Childhood friends Sam and Stéphane are partners in a business designing high-end skis in the Alps, but the future of their company looks grim. So they hatch a crazy plan to save their brand: to qualify Sam for the Winter Olympics in cross-country skiing under the flag of his father’s country, Algeria!
This improbable but true story is that of Noureddine Bentoumi, brother of director Farid Bentoumi, who actually competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Noureddine (a.k.a. Sam) grew up in the Alps, spoke no Arabic and was unfamiliar with Algeria. This crowd-pleasing sports story makes for a fantastic hybrid comedy-suspense-drama of torn loyalties and dual cultures.