Set in Algeria in the 1920s, this drama concerns Brahim (Abdallah Bouzida), the aging head of a pottery business who is angry with his second wife, convinced that it's her fault that she hasn't been able to bear him a child. Deciding to move on to greener pastures, Brahim arranges to marry Fadah (Tounes Ait Ali), a young woman who had previously pledged to marry Hemma (Kamel Rouini), the man she really loves. Fadah is miserable with Brahim, and is humiliated by the strange fertility rites he forces her to perform when she fails to conceive, ignorant of the fact that he's sterile. Despondent, Fadah has a brief affair with a tramp who passes through, unaware that he's actually Hemma in disguise. Soon afterward Fadah is pregnant and Brahim, unaware of her infidelity, is at last happy with his new bride. However, his first wife (Doudja Achachi), who is still angry about being abandoned by Brahim and is well aware of his inability to father children, decides to plant seeds of discord by suggesting to her ex-husband that the child his new wife is carrying may not be of his issue. L'Attente des Femmes was the first feature film from director Naguel Belouad; Belouad also wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi