The Marrakesh Film Festival, which opened on Friday with Justin Kurzel’s thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its collection, which, as usual, mixes well-known titles with new fare.
“The Order” is part of the festive offerings that also include French-Moroccan composer Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Toda,” Walter Sallis’s “I’m Still Here,” and Mohamed Rasoulof’s “The Sacred Fig Seed.” All of this will be accompanied by their managers.
The 14-title competition dedicated to the first and second acts includes Moroccan director Said Himmich Ben Larbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseille, and Hend Al-Muddeb’s documentary “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays tribute to the Sudanese people and Sudanese culture. By chronicling the 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among the films supported by the festival’s Making Atlas Workshops initiative, which aims to promote and support the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan, Arab and African filmmakers.
Other entries in the competition include “Under the Volcano” by Polish director Damian Cukor, which revolves around a family from Kiev who learn that their stay in Spain has become indefinite with the invasion of Ukraine. “The Village Next to Paradise” by Somali director Mo Harawi, which is the first Somali film to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival; The climate change documentary by Australian/UK director Gabrielle Brady is titled Wolves Always Come at Night, about a sheep herding family in Mongolia who are forced to abandon their way of life after an extremely harsh winter.
Notable guests this year include Sean Penn and David Cronenberg, who will be honored, and “The Bikeriders” director Jeff Nichols, who will moderate the Atlas workshops.
Luca Guadagnino will chair a high-level jury that also includes Iranian director Ali Abbasi, Indian director Zoya Akhtar, American actress Patricia Arquette, Belgian actress Virginie Efira, Australian actor Jacob Wardi, British-American actor Andrew Garfield, and Moroccan actress Nadia Kounda. And Argentine director Santiago Miter.
Marrakesh is a major cultural event in Morocco, and one of the only international festivals of this size where performances and master classes are free and open to the public.
See the main lineup below.
Official competition
“Across the Sea” by Said Himmich Ben Larbi (France, Morocco, Belgium)
“Bound in Heaven” by Hu Shen (China)
“The Cottage” by Silvina Schneiser (Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Chile)
“Happy Holidays” by Iskandar Copti (Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar).
“Happy Ending” by Niu Sora (Japan, United States)
“Jane Austen Ruined My Life” by Laura Piani (France)
“Ma-Cry of Silence” by Mao Naing (Myanmar, Singapore, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar).
“One of those days when Hime dies” by Murat Furatoğlu (Türkiye)
“Scented with Mint” by Mohamed Hamdy (Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, Franc).
“Silent Storms” (Les Tempêtes) by Dania Raymonde Bougueneau (France, Belgium)
“Sudan, Remember Us” by Hind Al-Madeb (France, Tunisia, Qatar – Documentary).
“Under the Volcano” by Damian Cukor (Poland)
“The Village Next to Paradise” by Mo Haraway (Austria, France, Germany, Somalia).
Documentary film “Wolves Always Come at Night” by Gabriel Brady (Australia, Mongolia, Germany).
Concert offers
“The Order” by Justin Kurzel (Canada) — Opening film
“Everybody Loves Toda” by Nabil Ayouch (France, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway)
“The Fourth Wall” by David Olhoven (France, Luxembourg, Belgium)
“I’m Still Here” by Walter Salles (Brazil, France)
“The Sacred Fig Seed” by Muhammad Rasoulof (Germany, France, Iran)
“The Shrouds” by David Cronenberg (France, Canada)
“The Ties That Bind Us” by Karine Tardieu (France, Belgium)
Special offers
“Everything We Imagine is Light” by Payal Kapadia (France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
“Apocalypse in the Tropics” by Petra Costa (Brazil) – Documentary
“Bird” by Andrea Arnold (UK)
Documentary “The Edge of Dreams” by Nada Riad and Ayman Al-Amir (Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia)
“The Camp at Thiaroi” by Ousmane Sembène and Thierno Fati Sow (Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia) (1988) – restored copy
“The Secret Meeting” by Edward Berger (USA, UK)
“Diaries from Lebanon” is a documentary by Maryam Al-Hajj (Lebanon, France, Qatar).
“Fanon” by Jean-Claude Barney (France, Luxembourg, Canada).
“Kill the Knight” by Luis Ortega (Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, United States)
“The Mikado” by Baya Kasmi (France)
“Becoming a Guinea Fowl” by Rungano Nyoni (Zambia, UK)
“Strange Eyes” by Yeo Siew Hwa (Singapore, Taiwan, France, United States)
“Into an Unknown Land” by Mahdi Fleifel (UK, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia)
“The Disappearance” by Karim Moussaoui (France, Germany, Tunisia)
“To Whom I Belong” by Meriem Jabbour (Tunisia, France, Canada)