06/12/2024 - The seventh edition of Marrakech’s industry platform includes five exciting European co-productions that have begun to pique interest

The team behind Alicante pitching their project at the event (© simo/FIFM24)

The 2024 Atlas Workshops (1-5 December), which have just been unspooling as part of the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, hosted the presentation of 27 projects at various stages – 17 projects in development, and ten films in production or post-production (see the news). The award winners in each section have just been announced (see the news).

Here is an overview of five of the buzziest projects, all European co-productions, emerging from the workshops:

Alicante by Lina Soualem (© Easy Riders Films)

Alicante – Lina Soualem (Algeria/France)
Production: Easy Riders Films
Lina Soualem returns to the Atlas Workshops with a new film in development after the success of her second documentary feature, Bye Bye Tiberias [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lina Soualem
film profile] (2023), which secured the festival’s jury prize last year after being supported by the workshop in 2022. As Soualem’s first fiction feature, Alicante follows 32-year-old Franco-Algerian photographer Assia as she undergoes existential changes in her life, intertwined with the narrative of her family becoming newfound restauranteurs at a popular seaside resort near the eponymous Spanish city. “I want to film the interactions among people who love each other and who are seeking their places – in their family, in modernity and in the world. […] Algeria will be treated as an absent everywhere, constantly present in reference and imagination,” said the director in a statement for the workshop. The project is expected to be completed by May 2027, with production led by France’s Easy Riders Films.

Bardi by Tala Hadid (© Kairoi Films)

Bardi – Tala Hadid (Morocco/USA/France)
Production: Kairoi Films, Louverture Films, Ciné-sud Promotion
Following a group of horse-riders taking part in the ancient equestrian ritual of Tbourida, Bardi is an “ode to a different kind of community, a closed world of transmission and belief, where the forging of the self is played out in a theatre of horses and of men”. Filmmaker Tala Hadid, who is also a photographer, straddles the border between fiction and non-fiction, continuing this impulse in her third feature. Her feature The Narrow Frame of Midnight [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was screened during the 2014 edition of the festival. Hadid’s Kairi Films (Morocco) is producing in co-production with Louverture Films (USA), K Films (Morocco) and Ciné-Sud Promotion (France). The movie is expected in May 2025.

Laundry – Zamo Mkhwanazi (Switzerland/South Africa)
Production: Akka Films, Kude Media
Laundry is the debut feature by South African filmmaker Zamo Mkhwanazi, who has had several shorts selected for Clermont-Ferrand, the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto and Sundance. The director says that the film was inspired by real-life events from the maternal side of her family. Mkhwanazi highlighted her desire to tell the stories of ordinary people during a particular time in South Africa’s history, rather than narrating typical stories of heroes and martyrs. In this coming-of-age story set in 1968 South Africa during apartheid, young Khuthala must decide whether he wants to pursue his dream of becoming a musician or defend his father’s laundry business from elimination by the apartheid government. The film is a production by Akka Films (Switzerland) and is being co-produced by Kude Media (South Africa). Currently in post-production, it is expected in March 2025.

All That's Left of You – Cherien Dabis (Palestine/Germany/Cyprus)
Production: Pallas Film, AMP Filmworks
Beginning from Palestinian displacement from Jaffa in 1948, the film recalls the events leading up to a Palestinian teen being confronted by Israeli soldiers at a protest in the West Bank. The director emphasised her “deeply personal, emotional and profoundly intimate” approach to her third film, described as an “epic historical drama” that traces across generations and “the legacy of trauma passed down to each of them”. Palestinian-US director Cherien Dabis started with Amreeka (2009), which premiered at Sundance and won the FIPRESCI Prize in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Production is led by Pallas Film (Germany) in co-production with AMP Filmworks (Cyprus). The Match Factory has already snatched up international sales. The film is expected in January 2025.

Behind the Palm Trees by Meryem Benm’barek (© Tessalit Productions)

Behind the Palm Trees – Meryem Benm’barek (France/Morocco/Belgium/UK)
Production: Tessalit Productions, Furyo Films, Agora Films, Novak Prod, The Bureau
Meryem Benm’barek’s second film follows Mehdi’s life with his family and new girlfriend Selma in Tangier, which is disrupted by the young man’s encounter with Marie, a young French woman. The film by Rabat-born Benm’barek tells of “two loves that will be consumed by cultural, economic and social differences”. Behind the Palm Trees is set in the heart of Tangier, where “a ‘grand history’ is played out – one that tells of the relations of domination that persist between France and Morocco”, according to the director’s statement. Her first feature, Sofia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Meryem Benm'Barek
film profile] (2018), won the Best Screenplay Award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. Production partners include France’s Tessalit Productions and Furyo Films, in co-production with Morocco’s Agora Films, Belgium’s Novak Prod and the UK’s The Bureau. International sales have been picked up by Pyramide. Behind the Palm Trees is expected in December 2025.