Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies won the top award at the 20th Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM) on Saturday, marking the first time a Moroccan film has ever received the coveted Etoile d’Or.
The hybrid documentary recalls the bread riots that shook the working-class Casablanca neighbourhood of director Asmae El Moudir in 1981 and features members of the filmmaker’s family “acting” as themselves. They include her feisty grandmother Zahra, who attended the gala screening of the film.
The feature premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, where it won the directing prize and L’Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) documentary prize, going on to win best film at Sydney and best documentary at Durban film festival. It is Morocco’s submission for the international feature Oscar.
El Moudir, who also wrote and produced the film, accepted the award from jury president Jessica Chastain.
Kamal Lazraq’s crime film Hounds scored a further top win for Morocco, sharing the festival’s jury prize with Lina Soualem’s documentary Bye Bye Tiberias, which is also Palestine’s Oscar entry. Hounds previously won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at this year’s Cannes.
Bye Bye Tiberias, which premiered at Venice and won best documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, follows director Soualem as she travels to her family’s ancestral home with her mother, acclaimed Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass. The tragedy of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict appeared to weigh heavily on Abbass during her public appearances at the festival.
All three winning titles participated in past editions of the Atlas Workshops, the festival’s industry programme, now in its sixth year.
Further awards included the best director prize, which went to Senegal’s Ramata-Toulaye Sy for Banel & Adama, while Asja Zara Lagumdzija won best actress for Una Gunjak’s Excursion and Turkey’s Doga Karakas was named best actor for his performance in Nehir Tuna’s Dormitory.
Facing challenges
The festival steered away from its usual parties and glamorous red carpets in favour of a focus on cinema and its power to unify, in the wake of the September 8 earthquake in Morocco that killed nearly 3,000 people. The popular public screenings in Jemaa el-Fnaa, the iconic square in Marrakech’s old city, were also put on hold.
The festival is free to attend – for public and industry alike – and nearly 21,000 registered for the 20th edition, up from close to 20,000 in 2022. The Atlas Workshops drew more than 300 industry attendees and the festival was joined by more than 900 Moroccan professionals.
As in past years, the festival encouraged youngsters to participate, with around 8,000 attending screenings as part of the Cinema for Young Audiences programme. Among those attending were 750 young people from the Al Haouz province, which suffered the highest death toll from the earthquake.
FIFM general coordinator Ali Hajji spoke to Screen about the challenges that faced the festival ahead of this year’s launch. “This year was a special edition as we had so many difficulties to go through, from the actors’ strikes in Hollywood to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and the earthquake,” he reflected.
“There were some difficulties with people travelling from the northern Middle East. But as Jessica Chastain said in her opening speech, we didn’t know a few weeks ago if we were going to be here. However, in the end, it was a very beautiful edition.”
FIFM took place from November 24 to December 2.
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