Morocco-related Film
Synopsis of Story: Two Moroccan college students take a journey from Casablanca over the Atlas Mountains, to the Sahara Desert with an American film crew from Hollywood. Along the way they discover a ‘new’ Morocco: One much different than seen in favorite Hollywood films.
From Casablanca in 1942, to Jewel of the Nile, Oliver Stone’s Alexander the Great, and The Mummy, today… Hollywood has used Morocco as a location for making The Great American Movie and telling The Great American Story. Morocco once used as the “Middle–East” and “Arabia” is now Hollywood’s “Baghdad.” Being one of Hollywood’s most useful movie back lots, Morocco has become the set where America tells its story. And so Casablanca Mon Amour uses this ‘set’ in a playful and imaginative way to tell a new story.
Casablanca Mon Amour, in Arabic, French and English, ventures into rarely seen terrain — the real lives of modern young Moroccans — to tell a story about them, and us (America). Casablanca Mon Amour offers more than a dry critique of the impact of media on culture. Instead, the film takes a poignant and humorous look at the effects Hollywood films have on people’s imaginations and offers Moroccan’s (our movie set ‘extras’) an opportunity to talk back— and they do so in intelligent, witty and wildly ingenious ways.
Casablanca Mon Amour encapsulates the more complex and fractured nature of living in a world where movies and wars compete for headlines and occupy imaginations. Casablanca Mon Amour works to broaden understanding and does what much of our movies have failed to do: offer a mirror reflecting back an image of America in a region of the world where we rarely see the real “them” and they never see the real “us.”
Filmed in lush Super16mm and featuring the world famous Malhun of Meknes musicians. LINK to film's website with trailers: http://www.casablancamonamour.com/
For more info about Casablanca Mon Amour feel free to contact John Slattery at: zween.works@gmail.com
Bridges Between Cultures Video Filmed and Produced by Morocco RPCV, Dan Cahill post 9/11
French-born Nordine (Roschdy Zem), devoted son of a Moroccan immigrant miner, sets off from his home in northern France to fulfill his patriarch father’s last wish – to be buried in his family village in the Atlas Mountains. This is Nordine’s first visit to the land of his forefathers, a land he knows only through family stories – at least until he meets the competent and alluring Nora (Aure Atika), in search of new horizons as she escapes from a comfortable life as a kept woman. Nora joins him on the road, and they progress south through the expansive, aridly beautiful landscape with the corpse of his deceased father in the back of the van, a situation that leads to some wry humor. Before too long, a tentative but mutual attraction develops between Nordine and Nora, as Nordine works through his sometimes idealized, sometimes erroneous ideas of what it means to be Moroccan. Tenja is a highly satisfying and memorable film. –Seattle International Film Festival 2005
• Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets Nabil Ayouch, 2000, 90 minutes
• Door to the Sky Farida Ben Lyzaid, 1989, 107 minutes
• Boujad: A Nest in the Heat / Whispers Hakim Belabbes, 1992 / 1999, 45 minutes / 15 minutes
• Bride Market of Imilchil, The
• Beat of Distant Hearts: Art of Revolution in Western Sahara 1999
• Ben Barka A biography of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka, abducted on the streets of Paris and murdered in 1965
• Lutes and Delights Combining Arab and Moroccan poetry with accents from flamenco, Abdesadek Chekara and his orchestra, famous throughout Morocco, are among the most faithful interpreters of Arab-Andalusian music.
• The Virgin Diaries Two young women journey through Morocco in search of answers to their questions about virginity, sex and Islam.
• Malhoune The musical sessions, which occur "as often as the day rises" in Marrakech and in Meknes, are the living forerunners of Moroccan popular poetry.
• Arab Diaries A five-part documentary series that presents a fresh, insightful picture of contemporary life across the Arab world. ... , Palestine, morocco, Algeria, North Africa, Islam, Muslim, Iraq, ...
• Women in the Middle East A series that explores the changing roles of women in the Arab world. ... events in morocco. A VEILED REVOLUTION - Considers the ...
• Videos and films with video clips Award winning collection of films and videos ... , famous throughout morocco, are among the most faithful interpreters ...
• Home, or Maids in My Family A Moroccan woman confronts her liberal bourgeois family and their servants about the relationship between them (Arab Diaries).
• The Films of Elizabeth Fernea Seven films from the writer and filmmaker whose work focuses on the Middle East, particularly women and the family... events in morocco (1979).
Film Movement a subscription service offering past films for subscribers: $19.95 Non-Subscribers: $29.95
Le Grand Voyage A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Réda (Nicolas Cazale), a young man who lives in the south of France, finds himself obligated to drive his father to Mecca. The wide cultural and generational gap between the two is worsened by their lack of communication. Réda finds it hard to accommodate his father, who demands respect for himself and his pilgrimage. From France, through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan to Saudi Arabia, the two embark on a road trip that will change their lives.
Ali Zaoua Ali, Kwita, Omar, and Boukber are a group of street urchins living on the hard streets of Casablanca. Their everyday lives are filled with violence, begging, and indifference. In order to survive they create a bond of friendship and family between then. The bond is cut short when Ali is senselessly killed at the beginning of the film by a blow to the head; his life taken by a single act of a rival gang. Ali`s friends decide not to report his death to the police, who would have the boy buried in a potter`s field. Instead they decide to give him a worthy burial, to bury Ali on the private island he so often dreamed of. Ali Zaoua captures the power of dreams and presence of hope in the harshest of circumstances.
Raja Raja is a nineteen year old orphan literally and figuratively scarred by life. Fred is an emotionally bankrupt westerner living amid his plush gardens and palm trees. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Marrakech, Raja is a cross-cultural drama about a wealthy middle-aged Frenchman’s complex relationship with local youth. Fred’s attempts to seduce Raja, and their mutual attempt at manipulation, are fractured by their gross disparity of income, age and cultural sophistication
Casablanca Dramas, English , 1942, B&W, 103 min. NTSC, Rating: PG (MPAA), CC
World War II Casablanca is the setting for this Academy Award winning classic. Humphrey Bogart is an American expatriate and war profiteer, content to merely run the Cafe Americain until love inspires him to stand up for the French Resistance. Academy Award Nominations: 8, including Best Actor--Humphrey Bogart, Best Supporting Actor--Claude Rains. Academy Awards: 3, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best (Adapted) Screenplay (Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch).
Hideous Kinky Gillies MacKinnon's film about a single mother (Kate Winslet) and her identity-seeking trip to Morocco in the drug-hazy days of the early 1970s. Based on a the novel by Esther Freud, the movie changes the names of the children to Bea and Lucy and the mother to Julia. Escaping an unsatisfying life in England, which includes an estranged boyfriend and a drab apartment in South London, Julia and her two daughters arrive in Marrakech. It isn't long before Julia and her girls become enthralled by a street tumbler called Bilal, who becomes Mom's lover. -- Desson Howe, Washington Post staff. R. Runtime: 1:37
The Sheltering Sky
Two songwriters struggle to make it in 'The Big Apple.' their agent believes they should go far -- away. Finally booking a gig in Morocco, they find themselves caught in a crossfire between a beautiful left-wing CIA agent and enemy forces. A would-be road picture ala Hope and Crosby.
Morocco
Action/Adventure, English , 1930, B&W, 92 min. NTSC, Rating: Not Rated
A truly romantic film in which Josef von Sternberg, obsessed with visual beauty, creates a universe in which passion is the governing principle. Certainly the visual exoticism is thick enough to taste--in layers yet. Dietrich made her Hollywood bow as the café chanteuse Amy Jolly, who drops the patronage of an older gentleman of means so she can become a camp follower to a Foreign Legionnaire. The sexual tension generated by Cooper and Dietrich makes today's steamy love stories look impoverished; the brazenly outrageous ending still provides an astonishing climax. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Director, Best Actress--Marlene Dietrich.
A Night in Casablanca
1946; 84 minutes
The boys (Grocho Marx and the Marx Brothers) are involved in North African intrigue, but they get off enough humor to please their most ardent followers. Director Archie Mayo
The Sheltering Sky
Dramas, English , 1990, Color, 139 min. NTSC, Rating: R (MPAA), CC
The Wind and the Lion
Action/Adventure, English , 1975, Color, 120 min. NTSC, Rating: PG (MPAA)
Outpost in Morocco with George Raft. 1949. This sturdy action picture stars George Raft as Gerard, a dashing Foreign Legionnaire whom the ladies can't resist. When he is assigned the job of escorting the lovely daughter (Marie Windsor) of the emir of Bel Rashad back to her father's palace, the two fall in love en route. Unfortunately, trouble is brewing at the palace and Gerard's happiness fades when he realizes the emir is in the final stages of launching a massive uprising. Faced with a serious dilemma, Gerard has to decide whether or not to ride off and rouse the troops against his own potential father-in-law (played by Eduard Franz).
Director Robert Florey gets lots of moody flavor out of the Moroccan desert landscapes, and the action flows nicely with the aid of some witty dialogue. The rousing battle scenes are filled with actual legionnaires and Bedouin Cavalry riders who were used as extras.
The Man who knew too much by Alfred Hitchcock. Review by FOM member Dan Cahill as published in Summer 2002 Newsletter.
An American couple traveling in Marrakech find themselves entangled in a murderous conspiracy that takes them to London in search of answers, and their kidnapped son. This thriller is exciting, tense, funny and hugely entertaining. James Stewart and Doris Day star in this big budget ‘50s classic.
Filmed in Morocco: BlackHawk Down, Mummy Returns, Dune, The Man who would be king
Other Moroccan Film Contacts and information
The Cinematographic Center Moroccan (CCM), created in 1944 and reorganized in 1977, has as a principal role the organization and the promotion of cinematographic industry in Morocco. It takes care of the application of the legislation and the regulation concerning all the trades of the sector. The CCM provides: 1) the authorization of exercise with producer and distributor (cinema and video), with operator of movie theater de cinéma and with club video, 2) the authorization of turning of film, 3) professional registration, and film export permits.
History of Cinema in Morocco Ces pages ont été réalisées par Fassi Fihri Ijlal et El Farouki Chiraz, dans le cadre de leur projet de fin d'études pour l'obtention d'un diplôme d'Informatiste de l'Ecole des Sciences de l'Information (ESI), sous la supervision de Najib Ben Seffaj et Gherras Brahim. c. 1997.
Un peu d'histoire
Films Marocaine
Films etrangers tournee au Maroc