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Rabat – Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Houda Benyamina won Sunday Cannes 2016’s Golden Camera Award for her first feature film Divines, according to Europe 1.
Houda received her award with unconcealed joy and enthusiasm.
The 35 Franco-Moroccan film director whose speech while receiving the prize was very feminist, called on women to be more present in the world of cinema.
“I kept always saying that I do not care about Cannes (…) and today, well I’m happy to be here. Cannes belongs to us too (…) It’s just a killer.,” Houda Benyamina said.
“For things to change, you have to put a lot more women in decision-making positions. Women! Women!” said added with a pitched enthusiastic voice.
Houda’s film follows the traces of a young girl who dropped out of school and escaped her family in search of her own emancipation and personal freedom.
Starred by 20-yearl-old Oulaya Amamra in the role of the main character Dounia, the film questions the young girl’s relationship to her family, her religion and her social and cultural milieu.
Drugs, poverty and marginalization are omnipresent themes in the film but the main issue is foregrounding Houda’s feminist perspectives on women’s issues.
“I am a committed filmmaker, making films is a way to turn my [feminist] anger into perspective,” she explains.
