The Marrakech Movie Pageant has grown alongside Morocco’s flourishing movie business. When the competition debuted in 2001, the native scene produced simply 5 movies a yr. In the present day, that quantity has surged to round 40, reflecting quite a lot of initiatives geared toward nurturing and sustaining new generations of expertise.
Packages just like the Atlas Workshops have been instrumental in connecting rising auteurs onto the worldwide stage, whereas initiatives such because the female-focused Tamayouz Basis — based by three Moroccan filmmakers and two producers — work to take away limitations to entry. The inspiration offers entry-level coaching for ladies within the business, together with monetary help and mentorship in directing, screenwriting, manufacturing and post-production, and has additionally skilled vital development in recent times.
Listed below are 4 filmmakers from 4 very completely different backgrounds who’re making waves in Marrakech.
Meriame Essadak – Producer
Meriame Essadak has worn many hats all through her profession, transferring from training to overseas providers to advertising earlier than breaking into movie by incubator packages with the Tamayouz Cinema Basis and the Atlas Workshops. She at present has three options in growth, together with Mohcine Nadifi’s psychological thriller “La Piste.” The mission gained the Tangier Movie Pageant pitch competitors in 2024 and was one among 5 titles chosen for a Franco-Moroccan co-production session in Cannes — conferences that sparked severe curiosity from a number of French corporations.
“Mohcine initially approached me to co-write the movie, which I did,” she explains. “However after we began on the lookout for a producer, I took the bull by the horns. I informed him, ‘You have got me. I’m your warrior, and I’ll defend this mission physique and soul.’ As a producer, I solely tackle initiatives that hit me laborious, as a result of they demand sleepless nights and immense psychological power. If it doesn’t make me vibrate, it’s not price it — the connection needs to be bodily.”
Essadak can also be creating “Potes,” directed by Hamza Atifi, and “Rajol,” from Adnane Rami, each of which have gone by the Tamayouz skilled lab.
“Potes is about Moroccan college students who go overseas to review and battle to reconnect with dwelling,” she says. “It’s the voice of a younger era that sees itself as resolutely trendy, solely to find overseas that sure expectations and gazes stay unchanged.” In the meantime, “Rajol” explores “what it means to be a person in Morocco at this time, in a society the place ladies’s voices are more and more heard.”
Driss Ramdi – Actor
Born in Morocco and based mostly in France, Driss Ramdi first broke out with a supporting position in Mehdi Ben Attia’s Berlin-selected “Je Ne Suis Pas Mort,” incomes a spot on the César shortlist for Most Promising Newcomer. Since then, he has constructed a gradual profession with roles in Rachel Lang’s “Baden Baden,” Emmanuel Hamon’s “Escape from Raqqa,” Emmanuel Finkiel’s “A First rate Man,” and the favored Canal Plus rap collection “All of the Approach Up.”
This yr, Ramdi steps into the highlight for the primary time because the tortured protagonist of Meryem Benm’Barek’s “Behind the Palm Timber,” which premiered in competitors in Marrakech. Trying forward, he’s decided to construct on the emotional depth and authenticity he tapped into for Benm’Barek’s movie.
“Now I wish to work as deeply as I did on this position,” he says. “I wish to do increasingly fascinating movies. I’m very specific: I refuse cliché roles — the terrorist, the meaningless thug. I select rigorously. I need main roles. I wish to meet administrators, dive into initiatives the place you actually make investments your self.”
Ramdi can also be exploring a lighter, extra playful aspect by stand-up comedy. “That really scares me essentially the most,” he admits. “I’ve been writing rather a lot — with notebooks scattered throughout my dwelling — however direct contact with an viewers nonetheless provides me chills. I can stand in entrance of Brad Pitt and be tremendous centered, tremendous calm. However on stage… that’s my subsequent problem.”
Youssef Michraf – Director
Born right into a self-described “lower-middle-class household,” Youssef Michraf left his native Casablanca at 18 to coach as an engineer in France. However as soon as he arrived, he felt compelled to observe his true calling. He studied movie at La Sorbonne earlier than incomes a directing spot on the prestigious nationwide movie faculty La Fémis, and shortly got down to launch his debut function, “Candy Disposition.”
The movie blends body-horror with a coming-of-age narrative, centering on a younger boy so ashamed of his modest origins that he invents an elaborate ruse — one which quickly spirals right into a literal corporeal transformation. Michraf offered the mission on the Atlas Workshops in 2021, successful the Artekino Worldwide Prize, and has since sought to reposition the movie outdoors the French system after transferring to Los Angeles.
“American mates are launching a manufacturing firm,” he says. “They’ve financiers prepared, and issues are going effectively. They’re far more open than the French — genuinely enthusiastic in regards to the complexity and specificity of the movie. In France, movies set in Morocco have to suit sure expectations, and I discovered that suffocating. There’s not sufficient openness to nuance or complexity, whereas the People I met actually valued the movie’s identification and felt it was price defending.”
Leyna Tahiri – Director
Leyna Tahiri started in politics, pushed to “perceive the world.” She quickly realized she wanted one other language: “the language of feelings, of cinema.”
After working as a growth government for “In Remedy” writers David Elkaïm and Vincent Poymiro, Tahiri turned to Moroccan tv, contributing to serialized dramas whereas creating her personal private initiatives.
Making ready her subsequent brief, she additionally introduced her function, “Earth and Ashes,” to this yr’s Atlas Workshops. The movie follows a tense judicial course of after the demise of a France-born architect, leaving his Moroccan household — and the Gallic courts — to determine whether or not he must be buried in accordance with secular or Islamic traditions. Nabil Ayouch and “Calle Malaga” producers Amine Benjelloun and Jean-Rémi Ducourtioux are on board.
“I noticed this case occurs usually,” Tahiri says. “It additionally raises the query: is a funeral for the lifeless, or for the dwelling?”
“Like many kids of immigrants, I ask myself loads of questions,” she provides. “I used to be raised in France, constructed my profession in Morocco, and wish to discover these cultural dynamics. Nabil additionally comes from a twin tradition, so it resonated with him instantly. So many individuals share comparable tales from their very own lives — what occurred to my aunt, my grandmother. Everybody has a narrative that echoes this movie, which makes it really feel common.”
