There are very few "real" Moroccan films. There is a reason for this- one, Morocco doesn't invest a lot in film, and it may be on account of cultural reasons. Moroccans are very discreet. This is something that is lacking in this film, actual discretion, namely by the character playing the mother (her clothing shows a bit too much of her shape) and the rebellious daughter- who's acting is truly awful. Very early in to the film, she goes on and on describing some demonstration at her school "it was like a rock concert! A boy put me on his shoulders, I could see everything! The riot police.." to her little brother as she plays music in her bedroom. I found this particular scene extremely insincere, and off putting actually. In other words: I didn't buy it. To know Morocco and Moroccans- rebellion is not something one promotes (in Morocco, beards are considered "terrorist-y" and the secret police literally pull out their beard hairs, one by one with tweezers! Rebellion of ANY kind is strongly quashed, not only by the police but in the home as well) children don't go round bragging about things like this, so I found that scene not believable at all. If you go to any news media, you will plainly see that if Moroccans have any sort of rebellion, it's very small and quickly stopped. The scene in other words, was written in with some sort of propaganda involved in my opinion. "Hearts and Minds" indeed! I can't recommend seeing this unless one wants to practice their Moroccan Arabic language skills. Maybe not, really, as it leaves a bad taste in one's mouth with the characters, although speaking daridja (Moroccan Arabic) do some very un-Moroccan things. I knew I was in for it when as the beginning credits went across the screen, two of the producers had Jewish names- let me tell you why this unnerved me: would you watch a film on capitalism and free trade that was produced by Soviets? Although Moroccan Muslims & Jews live side by side without any problems, and there is a lively Jewish population in Morocco, I would not consider a particularly Muslim topic left to Jewish productions, just as I would not trust a particularly Jewish plot left to a Muslim production. Just doesn't "jibe".
As usual, any production out of Morocco with embarrassingly bad acting, stinky plot (why oh WHY must the producers degrade the female characters so?) the mother character seems to want to have a "fling" with a man who is not her husband- in Morocco, a man may refuse to marry a girl simply on the rumor she has even THOUGHT of another man. To understand the faults with this production, one would do best to understand the Moroccan culture.
I'd steer clear of this film- it's unreal, it's based on fantasy, and has an agenda. This is NOT Morocco, it's some political propaganda dreamed into a goofy, boring bad actifying mess.
Miss it.
