Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy The Debut, starring Julianne Moore as a shy housewife who discovers a passion for amateur theater, has been unveiled as the opening film of the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival later this month.
It will be among 76 films from 39 countries playing in Morocco’s premiere film festival across the Official Competition and Gala Screenings as well as the Horizons; the 11th Continent; a Moroccan Panorama; Young Audiences and Families; and Tributes sidebars.
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Fourteen first and second features will compete for the festival’s Étoile d’Or in Official Competition, showcasing new voices in world cinema, with Marion Cotillard presiding over the jury.
The contenders include Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Ben’imana set in the wake of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda; Abdallah Al-Khatib’s In Chronicles from the Siege, about Palestinian civilians trapped in a war zone, which won Best First Feature at the Berlinale, and Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s House of the Wind, a tender portrait of a Cameroonian woman whose children have left for Europe, which won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize and Lion of the Future Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film in Venice
Three contenders will make their world premiere in Marrakech: Moroccan director Yassine Marco Marroccu’s Alkebulan, an adventure film set in the Sahara in the 1960s and Italy in the 1930s; Iranian-Norwegian filmmaker Farzad Samsami’s Waves of Silence, a moral drama about migrant shipwrecks, and Rani and Salem Massalha’s Cairo Shadows, a thriller set in the Coptic Christian community in Egypt.
The Gala Screenings – which kick off with The Debut – include two world premieres: Fellipe Barbosa’s Leila et la nuit, inspired by the life of Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui and starring Roschdy Zem and Marina Foïs, and Omar Hilal’s adventure film and black comedy His Weakest Creatures, which brings Egyptian stars Ahmed Helmy and Hend Sabry together on screen for the first time.
Other highlights of the program include Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro; Laïla Marrakchi’s feminist survival tale Strawberries, which has been selected as Morocco’s submission to the Oscars; James Gray’s Paper Tiger and Luca Guadagnino unveils Artificial.
The Horizons section, giving a snapshot of international independent cinema includes several Cannes honorees topped by Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner Fjord and as well as Arab titles that have been making waves on the festival circuit including Mohammed Hammad’s psychological thriller Safe Exit, Sara Ishaq’s The Station and Ahmed Hassouna’s Citizen Osama.
The 11th Continent program – showcasing features 13 films that explore free, innovative cinema – includes fiction films by Danielle Arbid, Sompot Chidgasornpongse, and Radu Jude, as well as the documentaries Edward Said: Between Worlds and Bedeau, Transit Camp, the latter a world premiere.
The Moroccan Panorama features six fiction and documentary films, including Tala Hadid’s Bardi, which opens the program, and three world premieres, among them Mohamed Mouftakir’s Hoods. In total, 11 Moroccan films are featured across the festival’s various sections, in addition to three films shot in Morocco.
In the The Young Audiences & Families section, featuring 11 screenings intended for children, teens, and their families, Jamel Debbouze will present Philippe Riche’s animated film Girl in the Clouds, while Mohcine Besri unveils the world premiere of All But My Mother, starring Omar Lotfi and Abdellah Didane.
The festival will run from November 20 to 28.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
ALKEBULAN (world premiere)
by Yassine Marco Marroccu
Morocco, Hungary, Qatar
BEN’IMANA
by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway
CAIRO SHADOWS (world premiere)
by Rani Massalha & Salem Massalha
France, Belgium, Tunisia, Egypt
CHRONICLES FROM THE SIEGE
by Abdallah Al-Khatib
Algeria, France, Palestine
CONGO BOY
by Rafiki Fariala
Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JO: CHAPTER PHAEDRA
by Jacqueline Lentzou
Greece, Germany, France
EKLIPSE
by Manuel Wetscher
Austria, Italy
FURIES
by Rami Kodeih
Lebanon, Brazil
HOUSE OF THE WIND
by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
Cameroon, France, Belgium, Benin, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
MARIE MADELEINE
by Gessica Généus
France, Haiti, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada
OUR SHARE OF SAND
by Shalini Adnani
United Kingdom, India, Greece
SAD GIRLZ
by Fernanda Tovar
Mexico, Spain, France
WAVES OF SILENCE (world premiere)
by Farzad Samsami
Norway, Morocco, Sweden
THE WORLD BEFORE
by Yoon Dan-bi
South Korea, Japan, France
GALA SCREENINGS
THE DEBUT (opening film)by Jesse Eisenberg
U.S.
ARTIFICIAL
by Luca Guadagnino
U.S. UK, Italy
HIS WEAKEST CREATURES (world premiere)
by Omar Hilal
UK, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
LEILA ET LA NUIT (world premiere)
by Fellipe Barbosa
France, Morocco, Brazil
THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK
by Noah Segan
U.S.
PAPER TIGER
by James Gray
U.S, Brazil, Italy
STRAWBERRIES (LA MÁS DULCE)
by Laïla Marrakchi
France, Morocco, Spain, Belgium
HORIZONS
ALL OF A SUDDEN
by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
France, Japan, Germany, Belgium
A BIT OF LIGHT
by Ali Asgari
Iran, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Turkey
THE BURNING GIANTS
by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Thailand, Singapore, France, Netherlands
CITIZEN OSAMA
by Ahmed Hassouna
CLARISSA
by Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri
Nigeria, U.S
DAO
by Alain Gomis
France, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau
THE DIFFICULT BRIDE
by Rubaiyat Hossain
France, Bangladesh, Portugal, Norway, Germany
EVERYTIME
by Sandra Wollner
Germany, Austria
FATHERLAND
by Pawel Pawlikowski
Poland, Germany, Italy, France
FJORD
by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, France, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden
GLAXO
by Benjamín Naishtat
Argentina, Brazil
IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT
by Nanni Moretti
Italy, France, Spain
KETTICÈ
by Giovanni Tortorici
Italy
A LONG WINTER
by Andrew Haigh
UK, Canada
LOOK BACK
by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japan
THE ROSES OF MARRAKECH
by Ginevra Elkann
Italy, Morocco, France
SAFE EXIT
by Mohammed Hammad
Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Tunisia, Germany
THE SMELL OF APPLES
by John Trengove
South Africa, Netherlands, Chile
THE STATION
by Sara Ishaq
Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar
THAT’S ALL FOLKS
by Gustave Kervern
France
WOMAN UNKNOWN
by May el-Toukhy
Denmark, Latvia, Sweden
THE 11TH CONTINENT
9 TEMPLES TO HEAVEN
by Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Qatar
AL BARANEYA
by Ashgan El-Hamus
Netherlands, Egypt, Belgium, Saudi Arabia
BEDEAU, TRANSIT CAMP (world premiere)
by Yohana Benattar
France – Documentary
THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID
by Radu Jude
France, Romania
EDWARD SAID: BETWEEN WORLDS
by Maiken Baird
U.S. Documentary
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
by Elisé Sawasawa
France, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Documentary
I DESERVE A LOVER WHOSE EVERY RISE SETS FIERY DOOMS RAGING ACROSS THE SKIES
by Mani Haghighi
Iran – Documentary
NAHLA
by Farouk Beloufa
Algeria – 1979
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM
by William Greaves, David Greaves
U.S.– Documentary
ONLY REBELS WIN
by Danielle Arbid
France, Lebanon, Qatar
TILAÏ
by Idrissa Ouedraogo
Burkina Faso, Switzerland, France – 1990 – restored version
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
by Jason Jacobs & Devon Delmar
South Africa, Netherlands, Qatar
YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP
by Rakan Mayasi
Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
MOROCCAN PANORAMA
BANOU (world premiere)
by Mouhssine El Badaoui
Belgium, Morocco – Documentary
BARDI
by Tala Hadid
Morocco, France, United States, Qatar – Documentary
HALIMA
by Yassine El Idrissi
Morocco
HOODS (world premiere)
by Mohamed Mouftakir
Morocco
MAN OF SIGNS (world premiere)
by Zhor Fassi-Fihri
Morocco, France
UNTIL DAWN
by Mohamed Zineddaine
Morocco, Italy
CINEMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES & FAMILIES
ALL BUT MY MOTHER (world premiere)
by Mohcine Besri
Morocco
GIRL IN THE CLOUDS
by Philippe Riche
France, Belgium
THE LAST WHALE SINGER
by Reza Memari
Germany
LOOK BACK
by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japan
MUYI
by Julien Chheng
France
TUMMY TOM AND THE LOST TEDDY BEAR
by Joost van den Bosch, Erik Verkerk
Netherlands, Belgium
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