Dubai-based sales outfit Mad World has acquired worldwide sales rights to Nadim Tabet’s upcoming ghost story In This Darkness I See You ahead of the Cannes market
The Lebanese thriller will join the inaugural slate of Mad World, a new sales and distribution company for Arab-language feature films that was launched yesterday by Mad Solutions.
The supernatural story follows strange events that occur at a construction site in a Lebanese village, where tensions between Syrian workers and local villagers come to a head after one labourer becomes convinced that the site is haunted. The screenplay was co-written by Tabet,...
The Lebanese thriller will join the inaugural slate of Mad World, a new sales and distribution company for Arab-language feature films that was launched yesterday by Mad Solutions.
The supernatural story follows strange events that occur at a construction site in a Lebanese village, where tensions between Syrian workers and local villagers come to a head after one labourer becomes convinced that the site is haunted. The screenplay was co-written by Tabet,...
- 5/10/2024
- ScreenDaily
he Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff) marked the closing of its third edition with a screening of Micheal Mann's Ferrari, a Red Sea International Film Financing project, and revealed the winners of its highly anticipated Yusr Awards. The festival also welcomed Hollywood icon Nicolas Cage, receiving a Red Sea Honoree award, and joining the 2023 Honoree line-up of Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh, and Abdullah Al-Sadhan. Kristoffer Borgli's comedy horror Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage, will screen as the Final Festival Gala on Saturday 9th December.
Two juries deliberated to finally select winners across 14 categories; led by Jury President Baz Luhrmann. Seventeen films in competition, as well as 23 shorts, were in the running for the coveted awards.
The festival this year celebrated its biggest year yet in terms of attendance – welcoming almost 6,000 accredited guests and selling more than 40,000 tickets across all screenings and In Conversations.
The Closing Ceremony...
Two juries deliberated to finally select winners across 14 categories; led by Jury President Baz Luhrmann. Seventeen films in competition, as well as 23 shorts, were in the running for the coveted awards.
The festival this year celebrated its biggest year yet in terms of attendance – welcoming almost 6,000 accredited guests and selling more than 40,000 tickets across all screenings and In Conversations.
The Closing Ceremony...
- 12/8/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Oscar winner Nicholas Cage received a Red Sea Honouree award
Zarrar Kahn’s Karachi-set thriller In Flames won the $100,000 Golden Yusr award for best feature film at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival, which announced its winners on Thursday evening (December 7).
A Canada-Pakistan co-production and Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars, In Flames is the story of a mother and daughter trying to survive after losing the family patriarch. It world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Indian production Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh, won the $30,000 Silver Yusr. Based on the true story of an Indian couple who fell foul of the class system,...
Zarrar Kahn’s Karachi-set thriller In Flames won the $100,000 Golden Yusr award for best feature film at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival, which announced its winners on Thursday evening (December 7).
A Canada-Pakistan co-production and Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars, In Flames is the story of a mother and daughter trying to survive after losing the family patriarch. It world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Indian production Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh, won the $30,000 Silver Yusr. Based on the true story of an Indian couple who fell foul of the class system,...
- 12/8/2023
- by Mona Sheded
- ScreenDaily
The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.
Elvis director and two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann headed the Rea Sea jury, which handed out awards in 17 categories.
The Saudi Arabian fest also gave a Red Sea Honorary Award to Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winner, whose Dream Scenario will close the festival on December 9, joined fellow 2023 honorees Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh and Abdullah Al-Sadhan.
“Over the past eight days, we have welcomed the world to Jeddah and celebrated this vibrant global film community together – with a goal of bridging cultures and creating new ties,” said Jomana Al-Rashid, Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation. “We’ve done that with over 125 films from Saudi Arabia,...
Elvis director and two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann headed the Rea Sea jury, which handed out awards in 17 categories.
The Saudi Arabian fest also gave a Red Sea Honorary Award to Nicolas Cage. The Oscar winner, whose Dream Scenario will close the festival on December 9, joined fellow 2023 honorees Diane Kruger, Ranveer Singh and Abdullah Al-Sadhan.
“Over the past eight days, we have welcomed the world to Jeddah and celebrated this vibrant global film community together – with a goal of bridging cultures and creating new ties,” said Jomana Al-Rashid, Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation. “We’ve done that with over 125 films from Saudi Arabia,...
- 12/7/2023
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn.
The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”
The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...
The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”
The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...
- 12/7/2023
- by Nick Holdsworth
- Variety Film + TV
Zarrar Khan’s In Flames has picked up the Yusr Award for best competition film at the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.
Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.
The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.
The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.
Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.
The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.
- 12/7/2023
- by Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Algerian-French drama had its world premiere in Montpellier in October.
Paris-based The Party Film Sales has secured international sales rights to Karim Bensalah’s feature debut Six Feet Over.
The Algerian-French feature had its Mena premiere in the Red Sea Competition on Monday, December 4, having debuted at France’s Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival in October. Mad Solutions handles distribution in the Arab world.
Co-written by Bensalah with Jamal Belmahi, Six Feet Over follows the son of a former Algerian diplomat, who takes a job with Muslim undertakers to try and legitimise his immigrant status.
The film is produced by...
Paris-based The Party Film Sales has secured international sales rights to Karim Bensalah’s feature debut Six Feet Over.
The Algerian-French feature had its Mena premiere in the Red Sea Competition on Monday, December 4, having debuted at France’s Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival in October. Mad Solutions handles distribution in the Arab world.
Co-written by Bensalah with Jamal Belmahi, Six Feet Over follows the son of a former Algerian diplomat, who takes a job with Muslim undertakers to try and legitimise his immigrant status.
The film is produced by...
- 12/6/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The proverbial Top Ten List. A sacred tradition passed down by our cinematic elders. This is the fourth time I have partaken in this holy tradition, and one thing has remained constant is that this list is never set in stone. As we catch up with more films we missed or rewatch our favorites it causes us to like a movie more or less causing this list to change. In fact in 2012 and 2013 I ended up seeing my number one film of the year after I wrote up my Top 10. So the question becomes, “Why Do it?”. Well, for one it’s fun. At least I find it an enjoyable exercise as I try to break down the year that was. I watched 163 movies that were released in 2014. Narrowing that 163 down to a Top 10 is a challenge I enjoy.
Looking at 2014 as a whole it is evident it was a pretty good year.
Looking at 2014 as a whole it is evident it was a pretty good year.
- 1/11/2015
- by Dan Clark
- Nerdly
Paradise Then: Ayouch’s Drama Imagines the Making of a Terrorist
Examining a fictional decade in the life of a group of young Moroccan men that attempts to explain how they came to engage in a terrorist attack in Casablanca in May of 2003, killing thirty three people, director Nabil Ayouch premiered his Horses of God (a euphemism) at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Now, with director Jonathan Demme’s name attached to champion it, the title receives a limited theatrical release in the United States. Likely to remind many of Hany Abu-Assad’s 2005 film, Paradise Now, Ayouch and screenwriter Jamal Belmahi take pains to adapt a novel from Mahi Binebine to grant an in-depth understanding of what such a process looks like. Told with care and understanding, it’s a believable portrait of the dangerous brainwashing of fundamentalist religion used as a trap for those broken down by harsh realities.
Examining a fictional decade in the life of a group of young Moroccan men that attempts to explain how they came to engage in a terrorist attack in Casablanca in May of 2003, killing thirty three people, director Nabil Ayouch premiered his Horses of God (a euphemism) at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Now, with director Jonathan Demme’s name attached to champion it, the title receives a limited theatrical release in the United States. Likely to remind many of Hany Abu-Assad’s 2005 film, Paradise Now, Ayouch and screenwriter Jamal Belmahi take pains to adapt a novel from Mahi Binebine to grant an in-depth understanding of what such a process looks like. Told with care and understanding, it’s a believable portrait of the dangerous brainwashing of fundamentalist religion used as a trap for those broken down by harsh realities.
- 6/4/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Exactly 10 years ago today, the historic city of Casablanca, Morocco was shaken by a series of suicide bombings all carried out by young men from the same shantytown known as . The lives lost that day were victim not only to the physical perpetrators but the economic disparity and lack of opportunities that allows desperation to be exploited under the name of divinity. What does it take for a person to be willing to die and kill in the name of God? Director Nabil Ayouch explores these events profoundly by focusing on retracing the lives of these men who went from living in the outskirts of society to become weapons in a war that doesn't belong to them. With his film Horses of God, Ayouch tries to see his subjects as victims themselves caught between a toxic ideology and their precarious circumstances. Using powerful imagery the film and enhancing his frames with a sense of honesty that comes from his personal connection to this place, the director delivers a provocative statement that is as politically charged as it is emotionally affecting. Here is what the Moroccan filmmaker had to say.
Read the review of the Here
Aguilar: As we know the story is based on the terrible events that took place in Casablanca in 2003, but your film is more interested in showing what cam before that fateful date, and by doing so humanize the perpetrators.
Nabil Ayouch: I was very interested in violence itself because I believe violence has a source. It has a reason why; it doesn’t come from the sky. I was interested in the genesis of violence. Their childhood and the other trauma these boys experienced, is what turned into suicide bombers.
Aguilar: The film's tagline is “No one is born a martyr.” How is this fabricated fundamentalism and forced martyrdom created ? How do these young men evolve into terrorists?
Nabil Ayouch: There is not one reason why someone could turn into a suicide bomber. As you can see in the film there is some macro reasons, to call them something, which are being cut off from the rest of society, having no hope, no future, no employment, and no education, as the schools don’t play a part anymore. The state has abandoned them and obviously they carry this profound feeling of abandonment in general. The family doesn’t play a part either, there is no more love, no more care. There is no structure in the family unit and the fathers are absent. All these issues will affect them at a certain point in their existence and made them grow up differently than if they were given love or attention.
Aguilar: How did you find information on their stories and the town itself? Who were your sources in this isolated town?
Nabil Ayouch: I got my information from different sources. I spent more than 2 years on the ground in Sidi Moumen, in the slum. I knew there were anthropologists and sociologists working with different associations, so I talked to them to see what they had to say. We talked about the events themselves; some of them knew the suicide bombers so I’d asked them about them and how it happened. I also worked with a Moroccan researcher who did some strong research on the subject of radical Islamism, so there were many different sources
Aguilar: In the film, one of the brothers, Hamid (Abdelilah Rachid) goes to prison and returns a completely different person. Was he vulnerable enough to be manipulated by the religious fundamentalists?
Nabil Ayouch: This happens a lot in Morocco, very often when a very bad boy goes to jail and then gets out, he becomes a religious new man, because jail is one of the most favorable places to brainwash someone. This is what I wanted to show in the film, someone with a background like Hamid’s, can very quickly be brainwashed because he is in prison with these type of people.
Aguilar: Hamid then convinces his brother Yacine (Abdelhakim Rachi) to join the Islamist group, but as times get more violent and the crucial moment approached, he is not so sure anymore. On the other hand, Yacine seems to get more and more comfortable with the idea of dying for this ideas. How does this switch between them happens?
Nabil Ayouch: Jamal Belmahi, the screenwriter, and I asked ourselves what would be the best way to tell this story. It appeared to us that the relationship between the two brothers would be what brought everything together. This is one of the human aspects of the film that we wanted to focus on. The relationship between Yacine and Hamid at the beginning is one of admiration, respect, and protection. Then when Hamid goes to jail Yacine is left alone, he is lost. When Hamid comes back he is a another man, their relationship turns into one based on competition, a fight between the two brothers. This competitiveness is what leads Yacine to make the decision to become a suicide bomber followed by his friends Nabil (Hamza Souidek), and Foad (Ahmed El Idrissi Amrani). What I wanted to say by doing this is that poverty is not the only reason that leads them to commit terrible acts, there are other personal issues and human aspects. Otherwise there would be millions of people willing to become suicide bombers all over the world. That’s why we decided to build the film around this brotherhood.
Aguilar: They are obviously victims of the circumstances, but do you think that they really do end up believing in their “cause” or is the fact that they got nothing to lose that makes it for easy to become "martyrs"?
Nabil Ayouch: They think they believe in this cause, they make them believe in them. The rhetoric that these Islamic fundamentalists teach is very simple. They always use the same words, the same speeches. It is really brainwashing. This type of speech cannot reach and cannot target anyone; you really have to feel desperate, hopeless, and abandoned to be open to this kind of words. That’s the most important aspect in the film, these people in the Sidi Moumen are not happier or unhappier than people anywhere else, but they really feel cutoff from society. The fact that they feel that way allows some other people to come and tell them their truth, brainwash them, and tell them what they should do. They end up believing that they believe in this “cause.”
Aguilar: This is an epic film that takes us from the protagonists' childhoods throught their transformation into living weapon, how was the process for you as a filmmaker to tell this extensive story about such terrible real life events?
Nabil Ayouch: I have a very old relationship with Sidi Moumen because I shot one of my previous movies called , the beginning of that movie was shot there too. Since the 90s I have been shooting some documentaries there and other works as well, so when I heard in 2003 that the suicide bombers all came from this shantytown, I was shocked. For years I decided not to go back, I felt that I had been blind because I didn’t see clues of this events when I was there. It was until 2008 that I decided to return to Sidi Moumen and began this long process of doing research and meeting people. One year after that I read the novel by Mahi Binebine called The Stars of Sidi Moumen, and I decided that it would be the subject of the film - the characters were very strong in the book. I started based on the book, and at the same time I was still continuing my research on the ground with the sociologist. The whole concept took me around 3 years including the preparation to shoot the film.
Aguilar: Were your actors connected with this story in any way? Where they from a nearby town or did you decide to use professional talent?
Nabil Ayouch: Well the actors that play the main parts they are all unprofessional actors. It was their first time on the screen and most of them were born and raised in Sidi Moumen. I met them while I was doing my research there, some of them grabbed my attention with their charisma and what they had to say. I decided to begin the casting process with them. I didn’t want to betray them. I had worked with them for two years on the ground learning about this topic, and at the end I didn’t want to say “Look, thank you very much, but now I’m going to bring professional actors to play your parts.” So I decided to jump into this adventure with them, it made sense. They had played in the same playground as the real suicide bombers, they prayed in the same Mosque, some of them even knew them, they were not close, but they knew them. They have their own truth, their own life experiences in this neighborhood, and they know how it is to live there. That’s what they brought to the film.
Aguilar: What was the reaction to the film in Morocco? How difficult is it for people there to see a film about something so close to home?
Nabil Ayouch: For some people I think it was difficult to see this in Morocco. There is a sort of guilt, is as if they felt like they were responsible for what happened somehow. Is like if the film opened their eyes about this issues that they had ignored for a long time. This shantytown is about 4 or 5 miles away from my place in the center of Casablanca. At the time when I asked people in the shantytown if they ever went to the center of the city, 50% of them would say they never went there. On the contrary, 99% of the inhabitants of the city don’t even know how the shantytown looks like. They are cut off from each other. For them, in the city, discovering this film was like opening their eyes to a reality that was really sad and very harsh for them.
Then in a second screening more people went to see it. Some radical Islamists didn’t like it, but there were no big riots against the film, bu of course the film won’t please everyone. Then I decided to screen the film a year ago in the shantytown of Sidi Moumen, there were more than 300 people in the room and they could finally watch themselves on the screen. It was a very emotional because the victims’ families came from the center of Casablanca and the suicide bombers’ families were also there and they finally met each other. It was a very big moment.
Aguilar: After more than 10 years of the events, has anything changed in this town or in Morocco in general?
Nabil Ayouch: I would lie if I told you that nothing has changed because lots of things have changed. For example, now there is a tram that links this neighborhood with the center of Casablanca, it is very important for them to have a way to reach the center of the city. Some really good things are happening in Sidi Moumen, but this town is only the visible part of the iceberg. There are lots of Sidi Moumens no only in Morocco but in countries all over the world. Where we should be very careful is in education, and we are not good enough in that regard yet. The lack of education is the best entryway for brainwashing.
Read the review of the Here
Aguilar: As we know the story is based on the terrible events that took place in Casablanca in 2003, but your film is more interested in showing what cam before that fateful date, and by doing so humanize the perpetrators.
Nabil Ayouch: I was very interested in violence itself because I believe violence has a source. It has a reason why; it doesn’t come from the sky. I was interested in the genesis of violence. Their childhood and the other trauma these boys experienced, is what turned into suicide bombers.
Aguilar: The film's tagline is “No one is born a martyr.” How is this fabricated fundamentalism and forced martyrdom created ? How do these young men evolve into terrorists?
Nabil Ayouch: There is not one reason why someone could turn into a suicide bomber. As you can see in the film there is some macro reasons, to call them something, which are being cut off from the rest of society, having no hope, no future, no employment, and no education, as the schools don’t play a part anymore. The state has abandoned them and obviously they carry this profound feeling of abandonment in general. The family doesn’t play a part either, there is no more love, no more care. There is no structure in the family unit and the fathers are absent. All these issues will affect them at a certain point in their existence and made them grow up differently than if they were given love or attention.
Aguilar: How did you find information on their stories and the town itself? Who were your sources in this isolated town?
Nabil Ayouch: I got my information from different sources. I spent more than 2 years on the ground in Sidi Moumen, in the slum. I knew there were anthropologists and sociologists working with different associations, so I talked to them to see what they had to say. We talked about the events themselves; some of them knew the suicide bombers so I’d asked them about them and how it happened. I also worked with a Moroccan researcher who did some strong research on the subject of radical Islamism, so there were many different sources
Aguilar: In the film, one of the brothers, Hamid (Abdelilah Rachid) goes to prison and returns a completely different person. Was he vulnerable enough to be manipulated by the religious fundamentalists?
Nabil Ayouch: This happens a lot in Morocco, very often when a very bad boy goes to jail and then gets out, he becomes a religious new man, because jail is one of the most favorable places to brainwash someone. This is what I wanted to show in the film, someone with a background like Hamid’s, can very quickly be brainwashed because he is in prison with these type of people.
Aguilar: Hamid then convinces his brother Yacine (Abdelhakim Rachi) to join the Islamist group, but as times get more violent and the crucial moment approached, he is not so sure anymore. On the other hand, Yacine seems to get more and more comfortable with the idea of dying for this ideas. How does this switch between them happens?
Nabil Ayouch: Jamal Belmahi, the screenwriter, and I asked ourselves what would be the best way to tell this story. It appeared to us that the relationship between the two brothers would be what brought everything together. This is one of the human aspects of the film that we wanted to focus on. The relationship between Yacine and Hamid at the beginning is one of admiration, respect, and protection. Then when Hamid goes to jail Yacine is left alone, he is lost. When Hamid comes back he is a another man, their relationship turns into one based on competition, a fight between the two brothers. This competitiveness is what leads Yacine to make the decision to become a suicide bomber followed by his friends Nabil (Hamza Souidek), and Foad (Ahmed El Idrissi Amrani). What I wanted to say by doing this is that poverty is not the only reason that leads them to commit terrible acts, there are other personal issues and human aspects. Otherwise there would be millions of people willing to become suicide bombers all over the world. That’s why we decided to build the film around this brotherhood.
Aguilar: They are obviously victims of the circumstances, but do you think that they really do end up believing in their “cause” or is the fact that they got nothing to lose that makes it for easy to become "martyrs"?
Nabil Ayouch: They think they believe in this cause, they make them believe in them. The rhetoric that these Islamic fundamentalists teach is very simple. They always use the same words, the same speeches. It is really brainwashing. This type of speech cannot reach and cannot target anyone; you really have to feel desperate, hopeless, and abandoned to be open to this kind of words. That’s the most important aspect in the film, these people in the Sidi Moumen are not happier or unhappier than people anywhere else, but they really feel cutoff from society. The fact that they feel that way allows some other people to come and tell them their truth, brainwash them, and tell them what they should do. They end up believing that they believe in this “cause.”
Aguilar: This is an epic film that takes us from the protagonists' childhoods throught their transformation into living weapon, how was the process for you as a filmmaker to tell this extensive story about such terrible real life events?
Nabil Ayouch: I have a very old relationship with Sidi Moumen because I shot one of my previous movies called , the beginning of that movie was shot there too. Since the 90s I have been shooting some documentaries there and other works as well, so when I heard in 2003 that the suicide bombers all came from this shantytown, I was shocked. For years I decided not to go back, I felt that I had been blind because I didn’t see clues of this events when I was there. It was until 2008 that I decided to return to Sidi Moumen and began this long process of doing research and meeting people. One year after that I read the novel by Mahi Binebine called The Stars of Sidi Moumen, and I decided that it would be the subject of the film - the characters were very strong in the book. I started based on the book, and at the same time I was still continuing my research on the ground with the sociologist. The whole concept took me around 3 years including the preparation to shoot the film.
Aguilar: Were your actors connected with this story in any way? Where they from a nearby town or did you decide to use professional talent?
Nabil Ayouch: Well the actors that play the main parts they are all unprofessional actors. It was their first time on the screen and most of them were born and raised in Sidi Moumen. I met them while I was doing my research there, some of them grabbed my attention with their charisma and what they had to say. I decided to begin the casting process with them. I didn’t want to betray them. I had worked with them for two years on the ground learning about this topic, and at the end I didn’t want to say “Look, thank you very much, but now I’m going to bring professional actors to play your parts.” So I decided to jump into this adventure with them, it made sense. They had played in the same playground as the real suicide bombers, they prayed in the same Mosque, some of them even knew them, they were not close, but they knew them. They have their own truth, their own life experiences in this neighborhood, and they know how it is to live there. That’s what they brought to the film.
Aguilar: What was the reaction to the film in Morocco? How difficult is it for people there to see a film about something so close to home?
Nabil Ayouch: For some people I think it was difficult to see this in Morocco. There is a sort of guilt, is as if they felt like they were responsible for what happened somehow. Is like if the film opened their eyes about this issues that they had ignored for a long time. This shantytown is about 4 or 5 miles away from my place in the center of Casablanca. At the time when I asked people in the shantytown if they ever went to the center of the city, 50% of them would say they never went there. On the contrary, 99% of the inhabitants of the city don’t even know how the shantytown looks like. They are cut off from each other. For them, in the city, discovering this film was like opening their eyes to a reality that was really sad and very harsh for them.
Then in a second screening more people went to see it. Some radical Islamists didn’t like it, but there were no big riots against the film, bu of course the film won’t please everyone. Then I decided to screen the film a year ago in the shantytown of Sidi Moumen, there were more than 300 people in the room and they could finally watch themselves on the screen. It was a very emotional because the victims’ families came from the center of Casablanca and the suicide bombers’ families were also there and they finally met each other. It was a very big moment.
Aguilar: After more than 10 years of the events, has anything changed in this town or in Morocco in general?
Nabil Ayouch: I would lie if I told you that nothing has changed because lots of things have changed. For example, now there is a tram that links this neighborhood with the center of Casablanca, it is very important for them to have a way to reach the center of the city. Some really good things are happening in Sidi Moumen, but this town is only the visible part of the iceberg. There are lots of Sidi Moumens no only in Morocco but in countries all over the world. Where we should be very careful is in education, and we are not good enough in that regard yet. The lack of education is the best entryway for brainwashing.
- 5/16/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Les Chevaux de dieu (English title: God’s Horses)
Directed by Nabil Ayouch
Written by Jamal Belmahi
Morroco/France, 2012
What is it that is so controversial about Islam that more than a few people get antsy whenever said religion is brought up as a topic of conversation? It is actually more violent than other religions? Is there something else about, something specific, that rubs outsiders the wrong way? It seems strange considering that an immense portion of Earth’s inhabitants adhere to its teachings, about one quarter to be precise. How can so many people be wrong, or be practicing the ‘wrong religion?’ Be that as it may, the fact remains that, in this early 21st century, the world’s population is keeping a keen eye on Islam in all its depictions, and not always for the most enviable of reasons. As with so many religions, there are practitioners who...
Directed by Nabil Ayouch
Written by Jamal Belmahi
Morroco/France, 2012
What is it that is so controversial about Islam that more than a few people get antsy whenever said religion is brought up as a topic of conversation? It is actually more violent than other religions? Is there something else about, something specific, that rubs outsiders the wrong way? It seems strange considering that an immense portion of Earth’s inhabitants adhere to its teachings, about one quarter to be precise. How can so many people be wrong, or be practicing the ‘wrong religion?’ Be that as it may, the fact remains that, in this early 21st century, the world’s population is keeping a keen eye on Islam in all its depictions, and not always for the most enviable of reasons. As with so many religions, there are practitioners who...
- 10/20/2012
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
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