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Rabat – The film “Black” received not one but two main prizes at the International Festival of Cinema and Migration in Agadir.
The 90 mins long feature, which is a creation of the two Moroccan born Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, won the first prize for the 13thAgadir’s international festival of cinema and migration. The movie also received the prize for best female performance given to its lead actress Martha Canga Antonia.
The movie tells the story of two young teenagers, who belong to two different rival gangs. Mavela, 15, a member of the Black Brox, who falls desperately in love with the young and charismatic Marwan from the 1080 gang. The two young couple find themselves in an inevitable and dangerous situation, in which they are forced to choose between loyalty and love.
The movie premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and sold 14,000 tickets on its first day, which was beyond the directors’ expectations.
“We were expecting a turnout of 3,000 people, the numbers turned out to be a lot more than we expected and we are more than happy,” director Adil EL Arbi said in an interview after the movie release, back in 2015.
Many other awards were also distributed on the last day of the international festival.
The jury for long features awarded French filmmaker Fabianny Descamps with Best Director Award for her film “Isola” while French director and scriptwriter Philippe Faucon was awarded Best Script Award for his screenplay “Fatima”.
Aziz Dades and Avishay Benazra both received the Award for Best Male Role for their performance in “The Midnight Orchestra”. On the other hand, the first prize for the short film competition went to Belgian director Barney Frydman for his film “The Seed”.
The five-day long festival ended with heartwarming moments shared between national and international artists, as well as the audience and fans. The festival’s focus this year on the Ivorian cinematography is expected to prompt the beginning of many collaborated cinematic work between the two countries.
