20/05/2005

Brushing aside the stereotypes of the Moroccan society, Marock, the first feature film by Leila Marrakchi which was presented yesterday in the Un Certain Regard section revealed a much less traditionalist youth than think Westerners. The film, which is based on a sentimental adventure between a Muslim teenager without hangs-up (Morjana Alaoui) and a Jewish play-boy (Matthieu Boujenah), depicts young people coming from privileged backgrounds of Casablanca. Constantly overdoing things and living as carefree westerners (street car racing, playing David Bowie, la Mano Negra, The Auteurs... very loud, alcohol, daily consumption of soft drugs, and hard drugs temptations…), this 16-20 year old group however lives in a highly religious environment which oblige them to beat about and even to clash with customs’ inflexibility when they feel emancipation desires. An interesting theme which did not convince all the critics since the main topic is not so new in the Arab cinema and the form remains classical with a few clumsiness.

Marock with a budget amounting to 3 million euros was produced by Lazennec and co-produced by France 3 Cinéma (450 000 euros, 225 000 for TV license) and an Advance payment of 400 000 euros from the CNC. Distributed in France by Pan Européenne, the film is sold internationally by Roissy Films.

(Translated from French)