Bab el-Oued is the working class district of Algiers. Boualem, a young worker, holds the graveyard shift in the district bakery. One morning, shortly after the bloody riots of October, 1988, he commits an unthinking act which jeopardizes the entire district. Unable to stand the noise from one of the many rooftop loudspeakers broadcasting the propaganda of a local fundamentalist group, he rips the speaker out and throws it away. The extremists, led by Said, regard this act as deliberately provocative and aim to make an example of the culprit by punishing him. Violence escalates when Yamina, Said's younger sister, is caught with Boualem who is also her secret lover.

Merzak Allouache's exposure of the inherent dangers in the recent rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria has attracted considerable attention, winning both a Fipresci (International Film Critics) prize and a Prix Gervais when it was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival last year.