Angoulême: the price of artistic courage given to the Algerian designer Nime

Text by: Sophie Torlotin

The Algerian cartoonist Abdelhamid Amine, known as "Nime", critic of the regime and sentenced last December to one year in prison, including three months firm, received the price of artistic courage on the sidelines of the Angoulême comics festival.

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From our special correspondent in Angoulême, Sophie Torlotin

The Angoulême international comic book festival awards, as every year, prizes to the best albums of the past year. But for five years, on the sidelines, in the "off of the off" is awarded a prize for artistic courage, the prize "Couilles au cul", rewarding an author often persecuted or censored in his country. Last year, it was the Equatorial Guinean Ramón Esono Ebalé (aka Jamon y Queso ) who had it. This year, he returns to an Algerian cartoonist, Abdelhamid Amine dit "Nime", present in Angoulême after having served a prison sentence.

In question: a table, made public on the internet during the Algerian electoral campaign. Entitled "The Chosen One", this caricature shows the five presidential candidates, such as Cinderella, waiting their turn to try on a shoe held by the Chief of the Defense Staff, Ahmed Gaïd Salah.

" It was my opinion, it was carried in the demonstrations ... It was only a caricature. However, before pressing the button, I said to myself “Good…” I thought for five minutes. Then I did it. Either way, the fight is so much bigger! A month in prison, if that's the price to pay for a free Algeria, yes, we go. "

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Judged guilty by the Algerian justice of " offense to the President of the Republic ", Nime was therefore sentenced to a suspended prison sentence. International mobilization allowed him to be released after a month. But now Nime would like to recover its computers and hard drives. " I know it will take a few months. They didn't just confiscate the drawings in question, but they confiscated all of my album projects, a ten-year job. I hope that I will be able to recover especially that. "

Nime hopes that the price awarded on the sidelines of the Angoulême festival will protect him in his country. He continues to feed his blog, entitled “Dans ma Bulle” , and plans to produce a comic book album.

► Read also: BD: the social movement of authors invites itself to the Angoulême awards ceremony

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