'A Mile with My Shoes' won the audience admiration in the Carthage Festival Film

The Moroccan film ‘A Mile with My Shoes’ gained the admiration of the seventh art lovers when it was screened in the Carthage Festival Film. The film competed for the first work award which was clear from the interaction and praise from the attendees.

The film director, Said Khallaf, which his film is nominated to represent Morocco on the Oscar of 2017 expressed his happiness for screening his first film in such a great festival and with the audience admiration.

Khallaf noted the artistic components of the film which is not limited to the dramatic story, but it is extended to the plot through the overlapping of time, the cinematic narration, the professional photography, and the professional actors are all factors that contributed to this great movie.

The film ‘A Mile with My Shoe’ which Amine Ennaji and Noufissa Benchahida played its principle roles talk about street children, family disintegration, and violence against women through the story of a young man, said, who spent most of his childhood in one of the poorest streets in Casablanca fighting to live a decent life away from criminal world in a community that have no mercy for his kind of people.

Said Khalaf film won many awards locally or internationally, and it is nominated to represent Morocco for a foreign film Oscar. 

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‘The Rif Lover’ by Narjiss Nejjar

The film is based on Noufissa Sbaï’s novel with the same name in French. Narjiss Nejjar continues her mother aim and moves it from fiction to cinema contributing alongside her mother in the liberation movement of women from the cultural restriction and boundaries.

The film tells the story of a young and beautiful woman Aya (Nadia Kounda) who refused to give up her dreams against family orders and social norms. Aya longs to live a passionate love, yet she is confronted by a restricting reality and betrayed by her own kin.

Aya lives with her mother (Nadia Niazi) and two brothers Ahed (Fahd Benchemsi) and Hafid (Lotfi Omar) while her never-seen father is working in Spain as fisherman. To support the family the brothers work for a hashish trafficker, and, to gain more from the Baron, Ahed gives up his sister as an offering to the Baron to receive land instead. This action sets off turmoil between Hafid who objects his brother move and reminds him that honor is priceless.

Aya’s fantasized world that she shared with her best friend Radia (Ouidad Elma) collapses after she lost her virginity. Radia gets jealous of her friend and steal the barons money, and when he tries punish her, she attempts to suicide. The baron flees the country while Aya is indicted of trying to kill her friend.

The prison experience seems for Aya a more freer than the family house and despite her mother’s attempts to marry her, she refuses to give up her wishes and chooses to end her life because life for her is only what she dreamt of and desired for.

In this film, Narjiss Nejjar maintains her loyalty to her cause that she raises in almost all her movies which is women liberation from the patriarchal society that crashes women under a siege of restricting codes.

Director: Narjiss Nejjar

Cast: Nadia Kounda, Mourade Zeguendi, Ouidad Elma, Nadia Niazi, Fehd Benchemsi, Omar Lotfi 

Released: 2011                                                                                        

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‘Days of glory’ by Rachid Bouchareb

‘Days of glory’ is a war movie about the North-Africans who are recruited to liberate France from the Germen’s occupation. The name of the film is translated ironically in English-speaking world as ‘Days of Glory’ while in reality it is ‘Indigenes’ which means natives. The film highlights the unfair treatment to those African soldiers and how they were used, exploited and segregated.

The film starts with the recruitment of the Arab soldiers especially in Morocco and Algeria 1943 though the both countries are being colonized by France. The African troops contributed in the invasion of Italy and the liberation of mainland France.

Said (Jamal Debbouze), Messaoud (Roschd yem) , Yassir (Samy Naceri) and Corporal Abdelkader are all African recruits that choose to fight for France with different reasons per each of them. The troops meet Sergeant Martinez who trains them before leading them to their first mission. The troops are used as a fire shield as they are sent to defend a heavily defended mountain from the German. Even if they succeed to capture the mountain, the mission results a high casualties among the colonial troops.

The troops are transported via ships to France so as to defend the south of France. While abroad the ship, a French cook refuses to give a black soldiers tomatoes; and Abdelkader protests and calls for equality since all the soldiers are defending the same country.  When they arrive at Marseille, the troop are welcomed warmly; and Messaoud falls in love with a white French women called Irene who promises to wait for him. After that, Irene never knew the fate of Messaoud due to military censorship of litters between Arab soldiers and French women.

Abdelkader is reprimanded by the Colonel for his mutiny; and Colonel asks him to take ammunition to American soldiers in Alsace and promises him good rewards and recognition. Most of the troop are killed except Martinez  who injured badly in a bomb trap. Said, Yassir and Messaoud want to go back after they lost most of the ammunition, but Abdelkader rallied them to go on in their mission which will accomplish their purposes if they succeed. A German troop attack them and Abdelkader watches his friends dying one after the other; then, the French back up troops arrive.

Abdelkader tries to talk to the Colonel , the latter ignores him and a Sergeant ordered Abdalkader to follow the troops.

The film ends with a statement which said that the pension of serviceman from the former colonies is frozen and they stopped to receive it since 1959.

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‘Zero’ by Nour EddineLakhmari

 ‘Zero’ is a distinguished film which is written and directed by NourEddineLakhmari. The film tackles serious issues daringly- prostitution, alcohol, and corruption. It has also received more than 30 several awards inside or outside the country.

‘Zero’ tells the story of a cop, Amine Bartal, who is nicknamed Zero (YounesBouab), and the conflicts that he encounters within his context. AmineBartal is corrupted cop that uses a young prostitute (Mimi) to swindle her clients their money. Bartal’s superior is another corrupt man who protects a big luxury prostitution network that exploits young girls. Zero is harassed and belittled by his superior because he refuses to succumb and cooperate with his corrupted friends.

Zero fancies a doctor; yet this love has no ground in reality and that’s what he knows clearly. Then, a women looking for her daughter would invoke Zero to revolt against everything and save her daughter whom he knows that she is abducted by the prostitution network.

Lakhmari keeps the same critic tune of his previous film ‘Casanegra’, and ‘zero’ sheds light on another sphere of the society. He also tresses the fact that corruption contributes to the spread of other issues such us prostitution.  Though the movie is shocking as many claimed, Lakhmari considers his film as a treatment with shock.

Director: NourEddineLakhmari.

Genre: Drama.

Cast: YounesBouab, Mohamed Majd, Zineb Samara….

Release: 2012

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‘Casanegra’ by Nour Eddine Lakhmari

There are several movies that have been shot in Casablanca, and each movie tackles a certain facet of life in the metropolitan city. Regardless of that, today’s movie concerns itself only with the dark side in the city where far away from the city lights resides the wretched of the earth. Thus, Casablanca is only white for those who enjoy a decent life, but it is ‘casanegra’ for Karim (Anas Elbaz) and Adil ( Omar Lotfi).

Karim and Adil are close friends in their twenties, jobless, and welling to change their situation with a magical stick. Karim is trying to keep bone and flesh of his family including his retired ill father. Though, he is in love from afar with a classy and chic woman who seems to deepen his self-conscious of his situation. Otherwise, Adil’s dream is to go to Sweden with illegal paper to escape his miserable situation and save his mother from his psychopath stepfather.

These provocative conditions push the young men to work for a dealer, Zrirek (Mohamed Benbrahim). Adil seems enthusiastic about the job because he needs money to realize his dream, whereas Karim suspects Zrirek and he tries to dissuade Adil from working with him. Afterwards, the mission that Zrirek entrusts Adil and Karim failed and all their hopes fade away. `   

Nour Eddine Lakhmari brings out a forsaken world not only in Casablanca but the whole country. The people of this world are the menial workers who spend 8 hours standing for dozens of dirhams. Adil and karim are a good example of guys who are willing to work yet not in the same miserable and inhuman conditions.

Director: Nour Eddine Lakhmari

Genre: Drama

Cast: Anas Elbaz, Omar Lotfi, Mohamed Benbrahime, Ghita Tazi, Driss Roukhe…

Release: 2008

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‘Whatever Lola Wants’ by Nabil Ayouch

'Whatever Lola Wants' is a trans-cultural movie which is shot in America, Morocco, and Egypt. The movie follows a dream of a girl across continents to learn belly dancing. The name of the film has its roots in the entertainment dancing world. It is a popular song inspired by the ‘Spanish dancer’ LolaMontez’s saying.

Lola (Laura Ramsey) is an American dancer who gets inspired by oriental dancing through her Egyptian gay friend and coworker Yussef (Achmed Akkabi). Lola works a part time job in a post delivery and in a restaurant as a entertainer and waitress. She meets Zak (Assaad Bouab) whom she delivers litters every day and who is also from Egypt. Lola falls in love with Zak but he leaves her back to Egypt when he knows about her dream of being a dancer. After that, she decides to go Egypt to look for Zak and learn belly dancing from a real teacher. Zack does not welcome her properly and she discovers that he engaged to his cousin. Then Lola starts off looking for her inspiring dancer Ismahan (Carmen Lebbos) who at first refuses to teach her but agrees later. Lola realizes that Ismahan stops dancing because of an adulterous accusation that separate her from her husband. However, Lola keeps on learning becomes a celebrity belly dancer in Egypt and dedicates her success to her teacher Ismahan.

The film ‘Whatever Lola wants’ gathers cast from different countries (America, Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon) to strengthen the idea of the film which corrects some misunderstandings of different aspects such as dancing and its bad connotation in the Arab world. Besides, Lola does nor learn a lot about the Egyptian culture, yet she manages to win people’s hearts with her cheerful and passionate spirit.

Director: Nabil Ayouch

Genre: Romantic drama

Release: 2007

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‘they are the dogs’ by HichamLasri

Here we continue our journey with another film ‘The are The dogs’ written and produced by the Moroccan director and scriptwriter HichmaLasri. The film is shot by a follow camera, and the motion and shakiness of the camera lend the film a taste of documentary.

The film is about a TV crew who are looking for an interesting story in the light of the turmoil that the country witnesses in the eve of the Arab Spring. Among protestors, they find an amnesiac man who has just been released from 30 years prison after he was arrested in the uprising events on 1981, and now he is looking for his family.The playful crew manage to help the man who, doesn’t remember his name. Thus, they resolve to bring together the pieces of the anonymous man story. At the end of the film, the crew succeed to find the family, but the welcoming is so cold to the prisoner father who accepts the matter since he admits that he was not a good father and husband.

The film criticizes media, especially TV, and the way how it distorts reality. The film highlights many questions, but it answers none; thosequestions are for the audience to introspect, instead. Freedom of speech, political violence, and social justiceare concepts that span between the past and the future interposed with citizens’misery.

Direcror: HichamLasri

Genre: Drama

Realease: 2014

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‘Much loved’ by Nabil Ayouch

This is the third film that I have worked on by Nabil Ayouch after ‘Ali Zaoua’ and ‘Horses of God’. Ayouch has a special approach in dealing with social issues in each of his movies. He mainly thinks out of the box when it comes to dealing with the story as if you are watching real events through the frames of a TV box.

In today’s film, the story arouses too much criticism and contempt within the general audience who consider the work to be merely a pornographic film.  Apart from that, Nabil Ayouch has another point of view and he succeeds to convey it to the audience and the chaos that his movie creates proves that. 

Sometimes, it is hard to tell people about reality; yet, it is necessary to unveil reality when it comes to the suffering of people. Ayouch, as he used to do in all his movies, is faithful to the issues which he deals with; despite the fact that prostitution is an enormous phenomenon. 

The film is about three prostitutes: Noha (Loubna Abidar), Randa (Asma Lazrak), and Soukaina (Hakima Karaouane ). The film records as much as possible the prostitution life of the three women. Once you watch such film, you will reconsider many ideas about prostitutes who are looked down in our society.

This time I choose not to summarize the film's story because everything is clear. Besides, the message that i absoreb from the film is that every human being is good by nature and never choose to be bad , but the environment and coincidence draw lines of their future that may follow unconsciously. Thus, one should not judge. People should always respect the harshness others undergo.

Director: Nabil Ayouch
Genre: Drama
Release: 2015

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‘Classroom 8’ by Jamal Belmejdoub

‘Classroom 8’ is one of the films I like a lot when I watch back in 2005. The film is about naughty boys in school and whom of us that does not experience this phase, but the story here is different a little bit.

The film revolves around two naughty and aggressive students Mjid (Rafik Boubker) and Miloud (Aziz Hattab) and their newly appointed young teacher Laila (Fatima khair).  Mjid and Miloud are example of all students who go to the class not for study but just to have fun at the expense of their teachers and class-mates. Once Laila starts the classes Mjid and Milod keeps bothering and interrupting her and making fun of her and the class. Mjid from the first sight seems to fall all over Laila and he spies on her personal life with her fiancé. To some extant Mjid mixes Laila's personal life with his fun in the class and that drive Laila mad and she pass out.

Laila’s fiancé, Rachid, tries to interfere in order to help Laila, but she refuses that and manages to deal the matter alone. Afterwards, Laila changes her way of dealing with her students as a punishment for them, and also she gives them an example of the other type of teachers who unwilling to bother themselves with students. At the end, Laila succeeds to change the behaviors of her naughty students and helped them to set new goals for their life.

‘Classroom 8’ is a perfect sample of the difficulties that teachers encounter in their mission which hinder the transmission and the construction of knowledge with students. The film also gives a picture of aggressive students and emphasizes the condition in which Mjid lives in. the idea behind this is that a boy/girl is made aggressive due to certain conditions and through communication and understanding one can change his/her behaviors.

Director: Jamal Belmejdoub

Year: 2004

Genre: Drama

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‘Ali Zaoua The Prince of The Street’ By Nabil Ayouch

One of the characteristics that distinguishes Ayouch’s movies is realism. In all his movies, Nabil does not seek to fanaticize reality, rather his topics stems from the suffering and problems that Moroccan society undergo.

In this film ‘Ali Zaoua’, Ayouch dives deep in street children’s life and dreams. This film is more a documentary than a film in which it projects the life of street children who represent themselves in the movie. Kwita (Mounim Kbab), Omar (Mustapha Hansali), Boubker (Hicham Moussoune), and Ali (Abdlhak Zhayra) are street children that Ayouch gives them a chance to depict their miserable life and represent all street children in Morocco.

The film’s story is about the four boys who decided to leave the gangster they were living with and start their own life, but the chief’s gang does not allow that. Then after a quarrel, Ali is hit by a stone and dies. His friends, Kwita, Omar, and Boubker, decide to give him a decent funeral like a real prince. Before Ali dies, he tells Kwita that he is going to sail to his island where there are two suns. Kwita becomes also obsessed with the idea and tries to materialize his dead friend’s dream. After that, with the help of a sailor, Hamid, whom Ali was working with, they build a small boat for Ali that will take his body to the island he dreams of. At the end, they bring Ali’s mother to the funeral and sail in Hamid’s boat singing a wonderful song that speaks their need for passion and empathy.

‘Ali Zaoua’ released in 2000, and it won several awards. It was even nominated for Best Foreign film Oscar.

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'Horses of God' by Nabill Ayouch

A commemoration of excruciating events

The film ‘Horses of God’ is a true story based on Mahi binebine’s novel ‘les étoile de Sidi Moumen’. The story is about the bombing of Casablanca in 2003 by 12 suicide bombers. Nabil tracks the life of three of suicide bombers for more than ten years. Through the movies, the focus is more on the three characters and the environment they live in rather than the ideology or fanaticism.

Yachine (Abdelhakim rachid) and his aggressive older brother Hamid (Abdelilah Rachid) struggle from their early age to help their mother and the family to survive. Then Hamid is caught in prison after he throws a stone on cops. Yachine suffers while working alone in the market, and he loves the neighborhood’s beautiful girl whom he never has the chance to meet alone.

After two years Hamid is released a devout believer. Afterwards, Yachine and his friend Nabil are affected by Hamid’s religiosity and they join his group of believers who prepare them with others for the mission of elevating Islam against disbelievers. Afterwards, these young guys turn into walking bombs in streets of Casablanca. Although Hamid tries to dissuade his brother, the latter is determined about the mission. Having said that, the bombing kills 45 people and wounds more than 100 others.

 Ayouch succeeds in his film to capture the process through which many factors intertwined to produce fanaticism such as poverty and illiteracy.

The film is released in 2014.  

                      

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'Death for Sale' by Faouzi Bensaidi

Death for sale (Mort à Vendre) is a movie that inspires its characters from under the surface reality of Morocco. The movie is shot in Tetouan and it revolves around three inseparable friends. 

Malik, Allal, and Soufiane are young friends that hold their hands to face the unbearable situation they are living. They decide to change their miserable condition through one shot by heisting a 
spanish jeweler though each has his own motivation. Malik wants 
to save his beloved prostitute; Allal needs money to start his own 
drug business, whereas Soufiane wants to revenge the jeweler.

 Driven by love, greediness, or belief, the three unlucky friends are betrayed by their own dreams from one side and by society from 
the other. 

Bensaidi succeeds to draw a vivid picture of a segment of people. 
Although they seem delinquent, yet they aspire for better life. The 
movie’s characters are trapped in their marginalized situation, but
 they manage to create their own world even if it costs them their 
life. Through those characters, we tend to have a close image of 
people on the edge and how good people that love and dream for 
better life turn into criminals overnight.

The movie is written and directed by Faouzi Bensaidi and it was released in 2011.

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'A Thousand Months' by Faouzi Bensaidi

'A Thousand Months' is produced by Faouzi Bensaidi. The movie is about ,Mehdi, a seven years old child whom his father is in prison, he lives with his mother in his grandfather’s house. Mehdi’s father is a teacher who is imprisoned under the charge of provoking students into protests, but Mehdi is told by his mother that his father is working in France. The grandfather is doing his best to keep the basic needs of the family. In that, he suffers too much living on the fact that his land being confiscated by the same country he fought for in the war of liberation. In school, Mehdi is privileged by carrying the teacher’s chair from and to his home.

Beyond the story of Mehdi who represent the new generation that live under the socio-political pressure there is another hidden story in parallel with the main story that tell us much more about the state policy in dealing people. Corruption of school and  corruption of authority are another imperatives of the second story. Bensaidi built his movie from different parts to organize a consistent picture of the social institutions in their interaction.

Through the movie we see the reflection of missed up country that restricts people's freedom of speech and protest and a child who pears up the harshness of carrying a chair for his teacher from home to school every day. The picture here is symbolic, and we only could understand it if we know the symbolism of the chair in the movie. The chair is a symbol of power and authority, yet students as a future generation can trick the teacher who is a symbol of authority with a nail up in the chair. This act connotes a  revolutionary meaning that even young generation may get outrageous when they are excessively tormented.

Mehdi uses the chair to contemplate and enjoy the views from a high places. He somehow experiences the grand feeling by sharing the chair with his teacher which makes the sitting on it quite different.

‘A thousand Months’ is screened in 1997 during Ramadan month in the Atlas mountains. 

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‘Le Grand Voyage’ (The Great Journey) by Ismael Ferroukhi: Religion VsSecularism

‘Le Grand Voyage’ is written and directed by Ismael Ferroukhi. It stirs up the issue of ‘Beur Generatin’ who are the children of immigrant and their clash with ancestral culture.

The story is about an immigrant father (Mohamed Majd) who forces his secular younger son to drive him from Marseille to Mecca. The son, Reda (Nicolas Cazale), cannot refuse his father’s decision; therefore, he gives up himself to his dominant father. During the beginning of the journey there is an intense communication between the father and the son that almost end up with argument. In their way, they encounter some incidents that only create more turmoil in their relationship. When they almost reach Mecca, Reda asks his father about the particularity of the place (Mecca), and the father explains to him the role of pilgrimage as an important ritual in Islamic religion. In the last scenes, Reda and his father try to understand each other seeking for better understanding for each one’s world even if they live under the same roof.

‘le grand voyage’ represents not only a father and a son relationship, but it sheds light into east and west relationship; an east that most of its population are Muslims and a secular west. This ideological background hinders communication. The movie also stresses on the patriarchy in which any mean of communication between the father and his son is blown off. Thus, the movie teaches us to listen, understand, and respect the other no matter who they are. In addition, the director ends his movie with the voice of Amina Alaoui singing a Sufi song of Ibn Arabi :

         My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles

and a convent for Christian monks, and a temple for idols and the

           pilgrim’s Kaaba, and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.

I follow the religion of Love that is my religion and my faith.

The movie was released in France on November 24, 2004 and won several awards. Once finished watching it, I could not help projecting myself as a Moroccan on the idea of estrangement and alienation of who ever that does not belong to the club. Thus, Ferroukhi succeeded to represent the issue well and push people to reconsider their attitudes.

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'Wechma' (traces) by Hamid Benani

‘Wechma’-‘Trace’ by Hamid Benani is the first film to be shot in Meknes, Morocco, or as I have found in an article that the movie traces the history of Moroccan cinema. The story is about an orphan child ‘Massoud’ who is adopted by a well-to-family from the village. The story doesn’t end here though Massoud is lucky to find a home which will leave a trace in his life.

The movie is worth watching despite its poor quality because it was shot at a low personal budget and collaboration of the directors who founded ‘Segma 3’ at a time when there was no Moroccan cinema Centre.

‘Wechma’ is a movie that sheds light on several issue through its main character, Massoud. Tradition and religion are dominant themes that determine Massoud’s life. With an authoritative father, Massoud is put between either an accomplished task or punishment that drives him to find his own world and his own identity elsewhere. In the quest for his identity, the unlucky orphan is stuck between harsh reality and absent compassion which doomed his fate.

The movie was released in 1970. It didn’t succeed in cinema theatre due to some reasons, such as distribution and foreign movies domination.

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