Spacemouse,
I think you are mixed up. Keltoum was the character who worked in the hotel and was not seen until the end of the film. Keltoum was thought to be the mother of Rallia (adopted girl from Switzerland) till the revelation at the end. The actual mother was Nedjma.
Keltoum had birthed a different child prior to Rallia's birth. Not sure what happened to that child. But could not have anymore children. For some reason, she gave Nejdma to a group of soldiers for their fun. She became pregnant and Rallia was born. Nejdma became mentally disturbed.
The surrounding villagers seemed not to know about the past pregnancy and Rallia being adopted out. As, when Rallia returned, her grandfather and Nejdma told everyone she was Keltoum's daughter.
Keltoum's family sold Rallia into adoption for money so the family could buy a donkey to carry the daily well water from the well. It was a survival sale.
Keltoum was not the adopted daughter. She was thought to be the mother of Rallia until the revelation at the end of the film when it was revealed that Nejdma was the actual mother.
During the movie, there were constant references to Nejdma's physical strength such as how she could carry heavy water containers. Forgot why I'm mentioning this.
Lately, I have been seeing more and more films/documentaries where in poor countries families are selling their daughters for survival money. Most of the time the daughters are sold into sexual slavery (Asian countries such as Cambodia/Laos) or in middle eastern/north and central African countries as young wives who are actually house worker slaves. Many times the daughters are sold to support the parent's drug habits and later on they are sold to cover the cost of the parent's HIV/AIDS medicine for a short while.
In countries where war has been common for decades, the people's moral and value systems are so skewed by survival, hatred and unforgiveness that they see nothing wrong with selling their children. It's becoming so common and I am sickened by it.
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