Born in Constantine, in 1929, having lived in France and in Europe for a long time, poet, novelist and playwright, Kateb Yacine is one of the best known Borth-African writers: a forerunner. In this film, Kateb Yacine talks about his work, about his ideas. His whole life springs up from memories. Images which are dealt like cards provide the key to an outstanding trajectory. Kateb Yacine mysteriously seizes our minds, inviting us to share his unappeased quest: rememberance. To begin with his childhood, in Setif, in 1945. « I was bron of a mad mother: a real genius, she was generous, unsophisticated. And pearls flowed from her lips. I gathered them up, ignoring their value, I saw her turn mad. Everything started with her ». Then his wanderings across Europe where he attains international revognition; after meeting some Algerian exiles he becomes their public writer; then he gets to know Jean-Marie Serreau (stage director) before becoming a playwright on his return to Algeria (1970), abandonning French for his native language. He also talks about his children, scattered all over the world, symbols of his long exile, of the great questions inhabiting his mind: humanity and Algeria, women’s rights, religion, revolution. None but himself is capable of representing Algeria in search for its memory, for its history, thus enabling the rebirth, in « The garden among the flames… », of Nedjma, symbol of the woman, of the homeland… the essentiel key to the life and work of the writer, the film’s real clue.