Private Project

collateral

In the remote Algerian desert near the Malian border, 10-year-old Brahim lives peacefully with his Tuareg family, in harmony with the vast, breathtaking landscape. His quiet days end when a military drone crashes near their camp. Headquarters issues a fatal order to erase all traces — a decision that will change Brahim’s life forever.

  • Yazid Yettou
    Director
  • Yazid Yettou
    Writer
  • lamri kaouane
    Producer
  • Ahmed zamaki
    Key Cast
  • fatma abed
    Key Cast
  • zaid djabri
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 10, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Algeria
  • Country of Filming:
    Algeria
  • Shooting Format:
    arri mini Alexa
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Yazid Yettou

Yazid Yettou (b. 1986) is an Algerian filmmaker and screenwriter whose work blends raw realism with a distinctive personal vision. A graduate in audiovisual studies (2009), he began his career in 2010 in various technical roles, refining his craft on productions such as Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamine’s The Twilight of Shadows (2014).

In 2020, Yettou made his directorial debut with the short film Boumla, which screened at numerous international festivals — including Oujda, Algiers, Alexandria, Muscat, Buenos Aires, Benevento, Rome, and the UK — earning multiple awards, among them Best African Short Film.

In 2025, he returned with Collatéral, one of the rare contemporary Tuareg films, a visually striking short built on minimal dialogue and evocative imagery. Rooted in the landscapes and rhythms of southern Algeria, Collatéral reflects Yettou’s cinematic influences, which include the humanist realism of the Dardenne brothers, the moral tension of Cristian Mungiu, and the visual poetry of Iranian cinema.

He is currently developing his first feature film.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

With Collatéral, I wanted to explore how a single, unforeseen event can shatter the fragile balance of a life lived in harmony with nature. Growing up in Algeria, I have always been fascinated by the southern desert — its beauty, its silence, and the way it shapes the people who inhabit it. In Brahim’s world, time is measured by the wind over the dunes, not by the machinery of war.

The arrival of a military drone in such a place — one of the rare films to focus on Tuareg life — was, for me, a way to confront two worlds that are never meant to collide: the vast, ancestral rhythm of the desert and the cold precision of modern technology. This clash raises questions about vulnerability and the invisible forces that can alter a destiny without warning.

I chose minimal dialogue, letting the environment speak: the textures of the sand, the stillness before impact, the weight of decisions made far away yet deeply felt by those with no voice in them. Collatéral is both an immersion into a child’s gaze and a reflection on how innocence can be marked by events beyond its understanding.