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Rabat – The Moroccan Cinema Center (CCM) has announced that it is in the process of reforming the system of public support for documentary films on culture, history, and the Sahrawi Hassani heritage, following a historically inaccurate film about a central historical figure in Hassani culture.
In a statement on Monday, the CCM said that the current support system for documentary filmmakers “no longer meets the objectives set.”
The center issued the statement after the closing of the 6th annual Documentary Film Festival on culture, history, and the Sahrawi Hassani heritage held between December 19 and 25 in Laayoune.
The festival saw the screening of 24 documentary films as part of a competition that selected 11 documentaries in the category “Panorama.”
Film critics at the festival noted that the screened works were of “low quality” despite the financial resources allocated to the industry as part of the country’s effort to promote the Sahrawi and Hassani heritage.
One work, in particular, triggered backlash from CCM as it misrepresented a historical figure and a pillar of the Sahrawi heritage. The documentary was “a gross and condemnable ignorance of a renowned historical figure of the South,” CCM says in a statement.
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The documentary is centered around the life of a pious figure, Sheikh Sidi Ahmed Rguibi. The documentary misleadingly claims that the Sheikh had no children. The screening of such erroneous information about the Sheikh’s life triggered backlash from the organizing committee of the Laayoune festival, as well as from the local community.
In its statement, CCM said the documentary represents “an intolerable mistake in the field of the film industry, especially since a documentary film is supposed to respect well-documented historical truths rather than to divert into fiction as is the case in other film genres.”
The documentary received public funding in 2019 and was submitted in 2021. It gained the approval of an independent council that includes experts on the Hassani and Sahrawi cultures. However, noted CCM’s statement, it was approved without first checking the historical accuracy of its content.
CCM expressed its “utter disapproval” and its “solemn condemnation” of this work in particular and of “any product that does not respect historical accuracy.”
So enraged was the CCM by the misleading documentary that it decided to cancel the closing award ceremony of the 6th annual festival for documentaries on Sahrawi culture.
“It appears that the system of public support for documentary films on culture, history, and the Sahrawi Hassani space, created in 2015, no longer meets its objectives,” CCM’s statement concluded, noting that the CCM will work in the following weeks to develop a new comprehensive vision for supporting documentaries on Morocco’s history and cultural heritage.
The reform will also extend the events dedicated to the screening of works receiving public support, including the Festival of Documentary Film on culture, history and the Sahrawi Hassani space.
