'The Alchemist,' One of Several Films to be Shot in Morocco During Summer

Rabat – As COVID-19 swept across Morocco in early 2020, it had a negative impact on numerous local industries, including the North African country’s growing film industry. Despite the recent resurgence of cases, a variety of local and international productions have received approval to shoot in the country.

Once Morocco emerged from its second lock down earlier this year, outpacing much of Europe in terms of vaccination rates, more and more productions have been returning to the North African country to resume filming, reports KFTV, an online media company.

“I’m not saying it’s easy — it’s a challenge,” Michael Dreher of the Kasbah Films Tangier production company told the film production news outlet. “But we feel very supported by the Moroccan government and the cinema centre,” he added.

Morocco will be home to a major production, the BBC-produced SAS: Rogue Heroes, a six-part drama series about one of the UK’s Special Forces units. Morocco will serve as a substitute for locations such as Cairo and other Middle Eastern locations. Produced by Steven Knight of the Peaky Blinders fame, the series will star Connor Swindells, Alfie Allen, Sodia Boutella, and others.

Another production set to arrive in Morocco is the big-screen adaptation of Paulo Coelho’s novel The Alchemist. Following a young shephard embarking on a journey from Spain’s southern coast, all the way to the Egyptian pyramids, the film will be produced by Kevin Scott Frakes, known for his work on Hereditary and John WIck. The production is set to invest $22.6 million (MAD 202 million) in the shooting of the film.

Also coming to Morocco in the coming months is the Indian media franchise Tiger, which has produced two Bollywood films and a comic book series. Produced by Yash Raj Films and starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif as the protagonists. The film involves characters hopping from “from one location to another, as they are racing against time to score victory in an impossible mission,” reported Bollywood news outlet, Pinkvilla.

“Judging by the emails, I’m pretty confident that sooner or later there will be a massive influx of productions into Morocco again,” concluded Dreher.