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Rabat- The Damned Don’t Cry, the latest movie by the British-Moroccan filmmaker Fyzal Boulifa, made its debut at the Venice International Film Festival on Thursday.
The movie explores the depths of a complicated mother-son relationship between Fatima Zahra (Aicha Tebbae) and her teenage son, Selim, played by (Abdellah El Hajjouji).
The mother, a woman of questionable reputation, is shunned by her family and despised by her neighbors. While Fatima Zahra’s son discovers the truth about her disreputable past, she becomes very religious and determined to purge herself of the tormenting past.
Having been similarly battered by life, the two move from one place to another in the country to escape scandal.
The film was shot in Tangier, with Boulifa choosing the northern Moroccan city as a filming destination because his parents are originally from the region.
“I grew up going to Morocco all the time, and I’m very interested in where my parents have come from,” the British-Moroccan director recently told the National, the UAE’s leading English-language news website.
He added that his work is inspired by his ancestry, cultural heritage, and family history. “My biggest connection to Morocco is through my mother, and she grew up in very difficult circumstances. She grew up very poor, she barely went to school,” he stressed.
Read Also: Why Tangier Has Inspired International Filmmakers for Almost 100 Years
In a laudatory review of The Damned Don’t Cry, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described the film as an “impressive, intimate, poignant and even tragic study of a mother-son relationship set in Morocco. It is humane, richly involving and powerfully acted.’’
Fyzal Boulifa is a British filmmaker of Moroccan descent. His debut film Lynn + Lucy, released in 2020, garnered a number of awards at several international film festivals. Fyzal was also nominated for a Critics’ Circle Film Award in 2021 for his work as director on the film.
Both his short films The Curse (2012), and Rate Me (2015) won the Illy Prize for Best Short Film. Boulifa was also named a Star of Tomorrow by Screen Magazine.
