Born in El-Chelif ( Algeria) in 1949 – Algerian and Swiss nationality.
After attending IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Ecoles Cinématographiques) in Paris, he worked as a cameraman for Algerian TV (1970 – 1971). Between 1972 and 1986 he worked at Polivideo SA in Switzerland as a cameraman. After a period in the United States he began working in the theatre as a director of photography for opera, on productions directed by Luca Ronconi, Giuliano Montaldo and Werner Herzog among others.
In cinema, again as director of photography, he worked on the following films: Il ponte by Rinaldo Zambrano, Antigone by Grytsko Mascioni, L’oro nel camino by Nello Risi (nomination for photography at the Emmy Awards), Les guérisseurs by Sidiki Bakaba, Il giocatore invisibile by Sergio Genni, Au Nom du Christ and Adanggaman by Roger Gnoan M’Bala (Award for Best Photography at Fespaco 2001), Le dernier voyage by Jean-Marie Teno, Nocaut by Stefano Knuchel and Ivan Nurchis.
In 1997 he made… read more
Born in El-Chelif ( Algeria) in 1949 – Algerian and Swiss nationality.
After attending IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Ecoles Cinématographiques) in Paris, he worked as a cameraman for Algerian TV (1970 – 1971). Between 1972 and 1986 he worked at Polivideo SA in Switzerland as a cameraman. After a period in the United States he began working in the theatre as a director of photography for opera, on productions directed by Luca Ronconi, Giuliano Montaldo and Werner Herzog among others.
In cinema, again as director of photography, he worked on the following films: Il ponte by Rinaldo Zambrano, Antigone by Grytsko Mascioni, L’oro nel camino by Nello Risi (nomination for photography at the Emmy Awards), Les guérisseurs by Sidiki Bakaba, Il giocatore invisibile by Sergio Genni, Au Nom du Christ and Adanggaman by Roger Gnoan M’Bala (Award for Best Photography at Fespaco 2001), Le dernier voyage by Jean-Marie Teno, Nocaut by Stefano Knuchel and Ivan Nurchis.
In 1997 he made his first full-length feature film as director: Waalo Fendo, là où la terre gèle, which was selected for that year’s Locarno Film Festival and for many other festivals; Waalo Fendo received the Award for Best Swiss Film in 1998 and the Award for Best First Work at the Milano Film Festival, the United Nations Award at Fespaco in 1999 and a nomination at the Human Rights Festival in Amsterdam. Produced by Amka Films, the movie represented Switzerland in 1998 at the Prix Italia in Assisi.
The full-length documentary film Sud – Les diseurs d’histoires was presented in the Filmmakers of the Present sidebar at Locarno in 1998 and afterwards at many other festivals.
Between 1992 and 2007 Soudani made more than 30 documentaries for television, shown at different festivals and broadcast on RSI-Swiss Television.
Between 1989 and 1990 Soudani directed documentaries in co-production with Ivory Coast Television, including Yiribakro, bois sacré (nominated among the 12 best documentaries at MIP-TV in Cannes in 1990 and winner in Montecarlo the same year of Best Documentary Young Television) and Nawa, l’homme et l’eau, which took an award at the Ethnographic Festival in Milan in 1989.
His full-length documentary film Guerre sans images (2002) competed in the Critics’ Week at the Locarno Film Festival and was subsequently selected for various international festivals, including Karlovy Vary, Södeborg, Amsterdam and the Biennale de l’Istitut du Monde Arabe – selected by Cahiers du cinéma for the Festival d’Automne, Paris. It also received the Special Jury Award at the Cinemambiente Festival in Turin in 2003.
The TV drama Roulette followed in 2007 and in 2010 Soudani shot the full-length feature film Taxiphone in the Algerian desert. He has just completed the filming of Lionel, a modern fairy-tale shot in Switzerland and Africa. —Taxiphone film website
