Eligible Awards
2006 PROGRAM
MAROCK
LAïLA MARRAKCHIFeature / 100 minutes / French and Arabic with English subtitles
SYNOPSIS
A Moroccan new wave is exciting critical attention. It's spearheaded by young directors who have studied abroad and now want to address the nation's modernisation. Marock's Laïla Marrakchi is foremost among them. Her update of Romeo and Juliet, set in 1997, takes a teenaged Muslim woman (an irresistible performance from Morjana El Alaoui) and a Jewish hunk as its star-crossed lovers and adds elements of Rebel Without a Cause. Forget the Casablanca of Bogey and Bergman, rethink sunbaking on rooftops and chi-chi dance clubs where privilege, racial diversity and hormones mingle to explosive effect. Marrakchi directs her large cast with terrific verve, entertaining while exploring the intricacies of a society more Westernised than many outsiders may have suspected.
FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHY
Laïla Marrakchi was born in Casablanca, Morocco. She left Morocco as a teenager to study filmmaking in France and directed the short films L'Horizon perdu (2000), 200 Dirhams (2002) and Momo Mambo (2003). Marock (2005) is her first feature.
COUNTRY
France
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION
World Sales: Roissy Films
SCREENS WITH SHORT FILM
Your Dark Hair Ihsan
Tala Hadid | USA/Morocco | 14 minutes
As he travels back to his Moroccan homeland, a man remembers his childhood.
SHORT FILM - SALES AND DISTRIBUTION
World Sales: Kairos Film
