Moroccan films “Queens” and “A Summer in Boujad” have been selected for the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival, which began yesterday and will end on September 10.
From the port city of Rotterdam, the festival evolved into an annual, international event.
It is currently a creative platform devoted to establishing a secure environment for candid discussions about art, human rights, emancipation, and political freedom.
Each year, in close coordination with producers and collaborators in the MENA region, the organizers choose for their audience films of the highest caliber and with the most meaningful relevance.
This converts into a broad and focused cinema offer that dispels prejudices and gives a rundown of the most significant movies produced in the Arab World, including those from Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Qatar, and Kuwait.
Its “Pathé Schouwburgplein” program features the Moroccan film “A Summer in Boujad”, to be screened on September 8.
The film, a coproduction between Morocco, France, and Belgium, is directed by Omar Mouldouira.
The video emphasizes the difficulty of maintaining family relationships and finding a new place to live.
Karim, then 13 years old, travels to Morocco with his father, who has remarried and settled back in his own country, seven years after the passing of his mother.
Karim joins the new family for the summer in Boujad, a small village in central Morocco, after spending a year in boarding school.
He strives to comprehend their world and find his place in a family of strangers as a teenager who is already confused by the concerns of puberty.
In the meantime, his father is struggling to adjust and even more so to relate to a boy who is starting to exhibit indications of rebellion after spending decades in France and realizing how little he actually understands about Morocco.
The “LantarenVenster” program featured the film “Queens” by Yasmin Benkiran.
The road film, a celebration of freedom, femininity, and the splendor of the Moroccan Atlas, was chosen to wrap out Venice Critics Week.