Filmgoers outcry over "Marock".

Laïla Marrakchi's new film Marock has received harsh criticism in Morocco during its screening at the National Film Festival held last week in Tangiers. Several film directors and critics have attacked Marock and even went further to question Marrakchi's nationality as a Moroccan.

Mohammed Asli, director of “In Casablanca, Angels don't fly”, started a ferocious campaign against the young director, saying that her film ‘should not have been screened in the festival.”

Marock, which is an autobiographical meditation on the director's own late teen years, spotlights the age when insouciance of adolescence gives way to first anxieties of adulthood.


The film tells the story of 17-year-old Rita and her handsome boyfriend Youri. They are from the same social milieu. The only difference is that he is Jewish.

Rita comes from a liberal Muslim family, but they have their limits. Her brother (Assaad Bouab), who has returned from Europe much more a Muslim devout, is now a constant shadow of disapproval.

Laïla Marrakchi describes her intentions: "Marock is a wordplay on "Maroc", the French name for Morocco. For me, the title illustrates my portrait of this group of young people, privileged but also kind of messed up and schizophrenic. They live according to Western ways but they're still very attached to their country and traditions. The opening scene in which a kneeling man prays outside a parked car where inside two teenagers are making out: that's Marock."

After the screening of the film, Marrakchi expected to be questioned on the film, but she was surprisingly astonished by the avalanche of accusations, pointing the finger at her nationality.

Nourredine Sayel, the director of the Moroccan cinematographic centre, reacting to the accusations against the young director, affirmed that the film is “a Moroccan film, directed by a Moroccan filmmaker, shot in Morocco starring many Moroccan actors, regardless of their religion.” He added that “the film's director is one of the most intelligent female directors. The film, despite ideological differences, is a ‘Moroccan reality'.”

The film was accused of serving Zionist purposes, mainly because of the scene which shows a Muslim girl making love with a Jewish boy.

Marrakchi told Morocco Times that despite the accusations of journalists, directors and critics, the film was warmly applauded by many viewers, including Touria Jebran.

“The screening of Marock in Casablanca was successful. It was applauded by those attending the 1st festival of Casablanca. In Tangiers, only a small category of journalists, filmmakers and critics assaulted the film, as they did not handle it in its artistic context,” Marrakchi concluded.

Tags: Morocco, Film Cinema, Film