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Join on Telegram In a scene at the beginning of the classic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, the main character, T.E. Lawrence (actor Peter O’Toole) is told he may proceed with an assignment to travel to Arabia and advise Saudi Prince Faisal as a revolt continues against Ottoman domination. A leading British diplomat admonishes Lawrence about the harsh terrain and climate that await him: “Lawrence, only two kinds of creature get fun in the desert: Bedouins and gods, and you’re neither. Take it from me, for ordinary men, it’s a burning, fiery furnace.” Lawrence responds, “No, Dryden, it’s going to be fun.”
In the six decades since British director David Lean filmed several key scenes of ‘Lawrence’ in the Moroccan desert town Ouarzazate, Morocco’s film industry has certainly enjoyed some fun times and notable success as film and television production evolved from a niche industry in the North African nation to a respected global presence.
Atlas Studios, a production company based in Ouazazate, began modestly in 1983 providing support to American and European production crews. Atlas is now joined by numerous others like OZZ films and Ali n’ Productions, providing expertise in everything from location scouting to story development to complex film processing.
Beyond the blockbuster movies that have filmed in Morocco—Inception, The Bourne Ultimatum, Lawrence of Arabia, and Gladiator, to name a few—the maturity of the local film industry is impressive and the film festival now underway in Marrakech creates an opportunity to acknowledge that enduring success in giving voice to local narratives and local talent.
A decade ago, Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch gained wide global recognition for his 2012 film, The Horses of God (Les Chevaux de Dieu), which told the story of the marginalized young men who perpetrated the 2003 terror bombings in Casablanca. Fifteen years earlier, Ayouch’s first feature film, Mektoub, was Morocco’s first ever Arab language submission for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards competition in 1998.
One of Ayouch’s directoral gifts is his ability to cast young Moroccans who possess a raw on-screen talent that conveys drive and determination. That formula gives voice to a nation with millions of young people under the age of thirty. His 2021 film, Casablanca Beats (Haut et Fort in French) was shot primarily at a youth cultural center in a gritty Casablanca neighborhood that Ayouch himself co-founded in 2014.
Like many of his films, Casablanca Beats portrays the on-and-off tension between tradition and modernity, family expectations and personal ambition. This year at Marrakech, Ayouch will revisit these themes again with his new film, Everybody Loves Touda, a film previously presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Mediterranean Sea migration, another front-page topic, will find a voice at Marrakech this year. Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, a French-Moroccan screenwriter and director who has previously collaborated with Ayouch and director Faouzi Bensaïdi, releases Across the Sea (La Mer au Loin in French), a feature length story about a 27-year-old Moroccan who has immigrated illegally to Marseille and struggles to come to terms with adulthood and his new home.
In 2015, the film festival took place just weeks after ISIS-inspired terror attacks hit several venues across Paris. “The current situation of the world is heartbreaking,” said American director Francis Ford Coppola, the chair of that year’s film festival at a panel discussion with the press. “But if you know the Quran, the first words are, I think, ‘In the name of God, the gracious and the merciful.’ Graciousness and mercy are repeated twice in the first page … These words are the roots of that beautiful religion.” That same year, American comedy legend Bill Murray added pop culture levity by entertaining the crowds in Marrakech.
The Marrakech Film Festival also gives global cinema stars an opportunity to connect to regional talent. The festival’s Atlas Workshops programs have been supporting emerging young Moroccan, Arab, and African filmmakers since 2018 in developing production, storytelling and financing skills. Securing foreign distribution rights in the era of streaming can be a challenge, too.
Last year, the festival paid tribute to Moroccan director and screenwriter Faouzi Bensaïdi for his long body of film work that included Death for Sale (2011) and last year’s off-beat comedy Desert. This year, Moroccan screen and television legend Naïma Elmcherquis—made famous in the 1977 hit Blood Wedding and who passed away in October—will be posthumously recognized for her long career.
The festival’s mix of popular global cinema as well as Moroccan and regional cinema represent a sound investment in the future of an industry that created over $100 million in revenue for Morocco in 2022. That success likely also spurred the dreams of countless Moroccan creatives.
