Tribute to The Film Foundation 2021 / Alyam, alyam / Morocco 1978
Celebrated Moroccan filmmaker El-Maanouni’s first feature is a searing portrait of an heir of a rural family torn between his domestic duties and his dreams of leaving for the city for a better, different future. Raw and uncompromising, El-Maanouni’s trailblazing documentary paved the way for the subsequent wave of realism that would shake up Arab cinema.
Better known for his iconic musical documentary Trances (1981), celebrated Moroccan filmmaker El-Maanouni’s first feature is a searing portrait of an heir of a rural family torn between his domestic duties and his dreams of leaving for the city for a better, different future. Raw and uncompromising in its depiction of the lost Moroccan generation swept aside by the inexorable forces of modernity, and in its emphasis on the debilitating burden of masculinity, El Maanouni’s trailblazing documentary paved the way for the subsequent wave of realism that would shake up Arab cinema. Largely unseen and inaccessible for decades, The Film Foundation’s restoration has breathed new life into one of the early jewels of Arab non-fiction filmmaking.
Joseph Fahim
88 min / Color, DCP
Director Ahmed El-Maanouni
/ Screenplay Ahmed El Maanouni
/ Dir. of Photography Ahmed El Maanouni
/ Music Nass El Ghiwane
/ Editor Martine Chicot
/ Producer Ahmed El Maanouni
/ Production Mars Films, Lux Films
/ Sales Cineteca di Bologna
Ahmed El-Maanouni (1944, Casablanca, Morocco). Filmography: Alyam, Alyam (1978), Trances (1981, doc.), Eyes of the Gulf (1984, short doc.), The Fiction of the Protectorate: The Resistances, The New Challenges (2006, doc. part 1), Burned Hearts (2007), Conversations with Driss Chraïbi (2008, TV doc.), Life and Reign of Mohamed V (2015, TV doc.), Julie – Aicha (2016).
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