This film was the first Arabic and African movie to win the Palme d'Or in 1975, the highest prize in Cannes Film Festival.
This film is ranked number 3 in the list of "TOP 100 Arabic Films", the list released in 2013 from Dubai International Film Festival and picked by 475 cinema expert.
During the screening of this movie at the Cannes Film Festival, director Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina was threatened with death by a French underground terrorist organization. Michel Poniatowski, the French interior minister in 1975, sent a security squad to protect Lakhdar-Hamina and his three children at the festival.
Algerian's official submission to the 48th Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film category.