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Rabat – “Casablanca Beats” is the first Moroccan film to be shortlisted for the 2022 Oscars and is set to represent Morocco in the “Best international film” category, the Moroccan Centre for Cinematography (CCM) announced on Tuesday.
“According to the criteria set by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the feature film ‘Haut et Fort’ (Casablanca Beats), directed by Nabil Ayouch, was chosen from four other eligible films,” the CCM said in a statement.
The commission that preselected the film is chaired by Samira Himeur from the CMM, actress Mouna Fettou, actor Rachid El Ouali, film critic Omar Benkhemmar, filmmaker Mohamed Nesrate, and Najib Benkirane, the president of the Moroccan Chamber of Film Distributors.
France’s “Les Films du Noveau Monde” and “Unite,” and Morocco’s “Ali n’ Productions,” jointly produced Casablanca Beats.
The film tells the story of youth in the district of Sidi Moumen, Casablanca, with a social and artistic view of the rap scene in Morocco.
Anas Basbousi plays the lead role as a former rapper in a cultural center of Casablanca where he encourages young people to write about their lives and experiences through hip-hop culture. This allows the film to get a glimpse of certain hardships that young people carry on their shoulders.
Casablanca Beats is Ayouch’s eighth feature film, and the film had previously participated in the 74th official competition of Cannes Film Festival in July 2021.
In interviews with Moroccan and international media, Ayouch consistently argued that his aim with Casablanca Beats was to shed light on disadvantaged youngsters who blossom when arts and culture comes to their lives.
The film, in other words, takes the view that through its inherent promise of personal – and sometimes collective – renewal, art can be a lifeline for the disgruntled and disenfranchised. It is about art as a means of reclaiming one’s story, of aiming for agency, of striving to be the narrator of one’s life story.
