The 21^st edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival takes place from November 29^th to December 7^th, 2024

On the occasion of its 21^st edition, which takes place from November 29^th to December 7^th, 2024, the Marrakech International Film Festival will present 70 films selected from 32 countries in its various sections: the Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11^th Continent, the Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, and films shown as part of the Tributes program. Twelve of these films were supported by the Atlas Workshops, the industry platform dedicated to the development of talents launched by the Festival in 2018. Nine of the films were selected to represent their countries at the Academy Awards.

 

The Official Competition seeks to reveal new talents in world cinema through 14 first and second films. The filmmakers vying for the Étoile d’Or explore a wide range of cinematic genres, from melodrama and documentary to futuristic storytelling and romantic comedy.

 

Moroccan filmmakers Saïd Hamich Benlarbi and Hind Meddeb respectively present Across the Sea, a luminous love film about exile, and Sudan, Remember Us, a poetic ode to the resistance of Sudanese youth. Other films in the competition take a humanist look at current events, including the situation in Ukraine in Under the Volcano, Damian Kocur's powerful second feature, and in Somalia in The Village Next to Paradise, Mo Harawe's tale of love and resilience. With The Wolves Always Come at Night, Gabrielle Brady probes the consequences of climate change in Mongolia in a documentary with splendid images.

 

Films from Asia include Huo Xin’s Bound in Heaven, which delivers a portrait of strong women to tackle the issue of domestic violence in China, and The Maw Naing's Ma—Cry of Silence , a depiction of the courageous struggle of Burmese women workers. In their debut feature films, Muhammed Hamdy and Dania Reymond-Boughenou plunge viewers into the history of their respective countries: Egypt in the hypnotic Perfumed with Mint and Algeria in the fantastical Silent Storms, which makes its international premiere in Marrakech. The new revelation of Turkish cinema, Murat Fıratoğlu, presents One of Those Days When Hemme Dies, a graphic work about a man determined to triumph over injustice.

 

Two films in the Competition take advantage of unspoken elements of the family unit to expose societal realities: a Palestinian family living in Haifa in Scandar Copti's Happy Holidays and Argentinian families in Silvina Schnicer's The Cottage, which comes to Marrakech as an international premiere. Finally, two charming comic dramas portray youths searching for their voices: Neo Sora traces the political awakening of Japanese high school students in the futuristic Happyend, while Laura Piani's Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a funny, heartfelt film about the romantic hopes of a bookseller.

 

The 21^st Festival’s opening night film is The Order, a crime thriller directed by Justin Kurzel, who returns to the Marrakech International Film Festival after winning the Jury Prize for his first film and who was a member of the jury of the 19^th edition of the Festival.

 

Six Gala Screenings present some of the most eagerly awaited international films of the year. Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles’s I'm Still Here is a deeply moving family drama that recounts the courageous struggle of a woman confronted with the disappearance of her husband during the military dictatorship. In Marrakech for its Moroccan premiere, Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda is a portrait of a free woman featuring an incandescent performance by Nisrine Erradi. David Cronenberg, the great master of science fiction to whom the Festival pays tribute this year, brings his most personal film, The Shrouds, to Marrakech. Carine Tardieu presents The Ties That Bind Us, a benevolent film about motherhood centered on a sensitive performance by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi. Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a family film that veers towards the thriller genre, represents a powerful plea for freedom in Iran. The Gala Screenings program closes with David Oelhoffen's Fourth Wall, which takes place in war-torn Lebanon in 1982 and questions the role of art in times of conflict.

 

This year’s Special Screenings include 15 current works, among them the latest films by directors who have been celebrated at the world's premier film festivals: Andrea Arnold, Edward Berger, Mahdi Fleifel, Payal Kapadia, Rungano Nyoni, and Yeo Siew Hua. Two of the most promising actors of their generation attend with their most recent work: Nahuel Perez Biscayart presents Luis Ortega’s slapstick comedy Kill the Jockey, and Adam Bessa will be in Marrakech with Tunisian director Meryem Joobeur’s fantastical drama Who Do I Belong To. Jean-Claude Barny unveils the world premiere of Fanon, the long-awaited biopic of Frantz Fanon, one of the greatest thinkers on the issue of colonialism. International premieres include Baya Kasmi's tender comedy Mikado and The Vanishing, Karim Moussaoui's fascinating story about the passing down of values from one generation to the next. The recently restored version of The Camp at Thiaroye will be screened to mark the 80^th anniversary of the tragic massacre it depicts. Three captivating documentaries complete the selection: Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics, Ayman El Amir’s The Brink of Dreams, and Myriam El Hajj’s Diaries from Lebanon.

 

The 11^th Continent program comprises 13 innovative fiction and documentary films that explore cinema that has no borders and that shake up representations of territory. They include the latest works by critically acclaimed filmmakers (Miguel Gomes, Péter Kerekes, Roberto Minervini, and Matthew Rankin) as well as films by a new generation of daring auteurs (Kamal Aljafari, Ali Asgari, Sylvie Ballyot, Inadelso Cossa, Nelson Makengo, Alexandra Simpson, Abdellah Taïa, and Maria Trenor). The program also features the first screening of a restored version of Nationality: Immigrant, Sidney Sokhona's manifesto film.

 

The Panorama of Moroccan Cinema presents five fiction and documentary films by Moroccan directors, of which three are world or international premieres: Simone Bitton's The Thousand and One Days of Hajj Edmond, Abdeslam Kelai's Nocturnal Sonata, and Jawad Rhalib's Since I Was Born. Moroccan cinema is especially prominent this year, with a total of 12 films presented in the Festival’s various sections.

 

Cinema for Young Audiences and Families features 7 films dedicated to family audiences and young viewers, aged from 4 to 18.

 

Finally, the 70-film program is rounded out by a selection of films by Naïma Elmcherqui and David Cronenberg, and starring Sean Penn, the three personalities the Festival salutes in this year’s Tributes, which screen at the Palais des Congrès and the Musée Yves Saint-Laurent.

 

Please find a link to official selection assets HERE

 

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

 

 

ACROSS THE SEA (LA MER AU LOIN)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba, Rym Foglia, Sarah Henochsberg

 

BOUND IN HEAVEN (KUN BANG SHANG TIAN TANG)

by Huo Xin / China

with Ni Ni, Zhou You, Liao Fan

 

THE COTTAGE (LA QUINTA)

by ​​Silvina Schnicer / Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Chile

with Valentín Salavarrey, Milo Lis, Emma Cetrangolo, Cecilia Rainero, Sebastián Arzeno

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

by Scandar Copti / Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar

with Manar Shehab, Wafaa Aoun, Meirav Memoresky, Toufic Danial

 

HAPPYEND 

by Neo Sora / Japan, USA

with Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yuta Hayashi, Shina Peng, ARAZI, Kilala Inori

 

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (JANE AUSTEN A GÂCHÉ MA VIE)

by Laura Piani / France

with Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson

 

MA—CRY OF SILENCE

by The Maw Naing / Myanmar, Singapore, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar

 

ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN HEMME DIES (HEMME’NIN ÖLDÜĞÜ GÜNLERDEN BIRI)

by Murat Fıratoğlu / Türkiye

with Sefer Fıratoğlu, Salih Taşçı, Güneş Sayın, Ali Barkın Birkan, Murat Fıratoğlu, Fırat Bozan

 

PERFUMED WITH MINT 

by Muhammed Hamdy / Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, France

with Alaa El Din Hamada, Mahdy Abo Bahat, Abdo Zin El Din, Hatem Emam Moustafa

 

SILENT STORMS (LES TEMPÊTES)

by Dania Reymond-Boughenou / France, Belgium

with Khaled Benaïssa, Camélia Jordana, Shirine Boutella, Mehdi Ramdani

 

SUDAN, REMEMBER US (SOUDAN, SOUVIENS-TOI)

by Hind Meddeb / France, Tunisia, Qatar – Documentary

with Shajane Suliman, Ahmed Muzamil , Maha Elfaki, Khatab Ahmed

 

UNDER THE VOLCANO (POD WULKANEM)

by Damian Kocur / Poland

with Sofiia Berezovska, Roman Lutskyi, Anastasiia Karpienko, Fedir Pugachov

 

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE

by Mo Harawe / Austria, France, Germany, Somalia

with Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahmed Mohamud Saleban

 

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT (ЧОНО ҮҮР ШӨНӨӨР ИРДЭГ)

by Gabrielle Brady / Australia, Mongolia, Germany – Documentary

 

 

GALA

 

Opening film

THE ORDER

by Justin Kurzel / Canada

with Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Marc Maron

 

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA

by Nabil Ayouch / France, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway

with Nisrin Erradi, Joud Chamihy, Jalila Talemsi, El Mostafa Boutankite, Lahcen Razzougui

 

FOURTH WALL (LE QUATRIÈME MUR)

by David Oelhoffen / France, Luxembourg, Belgium

with Laurent Lafitte, Simon Abkarian, Manal Issa

 

I'M STILL HERE (JE SUIS TOUJOURS LÀ / AINDA ESTOU AQUI)

by Walter Salles / Brazil, France

with Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Marc Maron

 

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (LES GRAINES DU FIGUIER SAUVAGE)

by Mohammad Rasoulof / Germany, France, Iran

with Misagh Zare, Soheila Golestani, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi, Reza Akhlaghi

 

THE SHROUDS (LES LINCEULS)

by David Cronenberg / France, Canada

with Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt

 

THE TIES THAT BIND US (L'ATTACHEMENT)

by Carine Tardieu / France, Belgium

with Pio Marmaï, César Botti, Valéria Bruni-Tedeschi, Raphaël Quenard

 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

 

 

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

by Payal Kapadia / France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg

with Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon

 

APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS (APOCALIPSE NOS TROPICOS)

by Petra Costa / Brazil – Documentary

 

BIRD 

by Andrea Arnold / UK

with Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, Jasmine Jobson, Frankie Box

 

THE BRINK OF DREAMS (LES FILLES DU NIL / RAFAAT EINY LL SAMA)

by Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir / Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – Documentary

with Majda Masoud, Haidi Sameh, Monika Youssef, Marina Samir, Myriam Nassar, Lydia Haroun, Youstina Samir

 

THE CAMP AT THIAROYE (CAMP DE THIAROYE)

by Ousmane Sembène, Thierno Faty Sow / Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia – 1988 – Restored version

with Sidiki Bakaba, Hamed Camara, Ismaila Cissé, Ababacar Sy Cissé, Moussa Cissoko, Eloi Coly, Ismaël Lô, Pierre Londiche

 

CONCLAVE

by Edward Berger / USA, UK

with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow

 

DIARIES FROM LEBANON

by Myriam El Hajj / Lebanon, France, Qatar – Documentary

with Joumana Haddad, Georges Moufarej, Perla Joe Maalouli

 

FANON 

by Jean-Claude Barny / France, Luxembourg, Canada

with Alexandre Bouyer, Déborah François, Stanislas Merhar, Mehdi Senoussi, Olivier Gourmet, Arthur Dupont, Salomé Partouche, Salem Kali, Sfaya M’Barki

 

KILL THE JOCKEY (EL JOCKEY)

by Luis Ortega / Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, USA

with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Ursula Corberó, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Mariana di Girolamo

 

MIKADO 

by Baya Kasmi / France

with Félix Moati, Ramzy Bedia, Vimala Pons

 

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

by Rungano Nyoni / Zambia, UK

with Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B.J. Phiri

 

STRANGER EYES 

by Yeo Siew Hua / Singapore, Taiwan, France, USA

with Lee Kang-Sheng, Wu Chien-ho, Anicca Panna, Vera Chen, Pete Teo, Xenia Tan

 

TO A LAND UNKNOWN

by Mahdi Fleifel / UK, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

with Mahmood Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Angeliki Papoulia, Mohammad Alsurafa, Monzer Reyahnah, Mouataz Alshaltouh

 

THE VANISHING (L'EFFACEMENT)

by Karim Moussaoui / France, Germany, Tunisia

with Sammy Lechea, Zar Amir

 

WHO DO I BELONG TO (MÉ EL AÏN)

by Meryam Joobeur / Tunisia, France, Canada

with Salha Nasraoui, Mohamed Hassine Grayaa, Malek Mechergui, Adam Bessa, Bya Liane, Rayen Mechergui

 

 

11^th CONTINENT

 

 

 

A FIDAI FILM 

by Kamal Aljafari / Palestine, Germany, Qatar, Brazil, France – Documentary

 

CABO NEGRO

by Abdellah Taïa / France, Maroc

with Youness Beyej, Oumaima Barid, Julian Compan

 

THE DAMNED

by Roberto Minervini / Italy, USA, Belgium

with Jeremiah Knupp, René W. Solomon, Cuyler Ballenger

 

GRAND TOUR 

by Miguel Gomes / Portugal, Italy, France

with Crista Alfaiate, Gonçalo Waddington, Cláudio da Silva, Lang Khê Tran

 

GREEN LINE (GREEN LINE–L'ENFANT-CHAT)

by Sylvie Ballyot / France, Lebanon, Qatar – Documentary

with Fida Bizri

 

HIGHER THAN ACIDIC CLOUDS (BALATAR AZ BARHAYE ASIDI)

by Ali Asgari / Iran, Luxembourg – Documentary

with Ali Asgari

 

NATIONALITY: IMMIGRANT (NATIONALITÉ : IMMIGRÉ)

by Sidney Sokhona / France – 1975 – Restored version – Documentary

with Constant Hames, Frank Valmont, Denis Parichon, Sally N’Dongo, Camara Bingourou,  Bertrand Mayet, Yerro N'diaye, Alphonse Teixido, Sidi Gassama, Brahim Barakati

 

THE NIGHTS STILL SMELL OF GUNPOWDER (LES NUITS SENTENT ENCORE LA POUDRE A CANON / AS NOITES AINDA CHEIRAM A POLVORA)

by Inadelso Cossa / Mozambique, France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway – Documentary

with Maria Estevão, Moises Langa, Inadelso Cossa

 

NO SLEEP TILL 

by Alexandra Simpson / USA, Switzerland

with Jordan Coley, Taylor Benton, Xavier Brown-Sanders, Brynne Hofbauer, Bob Simpson, Justine Fabre, Violet Strickland

 

RISING UP AT NIGHT (TONGO SAA)

by Nelson Makengo / Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, Qatar – Documentary

 

ROCK BOTTOM

by María Trénor / Spain, Poland

with Fermi Herrero, Laura Casana

 

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE (UNE LANGUE UNIVERSELLE)

by Matthew Rankin / Canada

with Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi, Sobhan Javadi, Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin, Mani Soleymanlou

 

WISHING ON A STAR

by Péter Kerekes / Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia – Documentary

with Luciana de Leoni D’Asparedo, Valentina Angeli, Alessandra Fornasier, Barbara

Lutman, Giovanni Rugo, Adriana Vangone, Giuliana Vango

 

 

MOROCCAN PANORAMA

 

(Y)OUR MOTHER (LES MIENNES)

by Samira El Mouzghibati / Belgium, France – Documentary

with Zoulikha Amnih, Amar El Mouzghibati, Fatiha El Mouzghibati, Saïda El Mouzghibati, Karima El Mouzghibati, Saliha El Mouzghibati, Samira El Mouzghibati

 

THE BLUE LAKE (AL MARJA ZARQA)

by Daoud Aoulad-Syad / Morocco

with Mohamed Khouyi, Hasna Tamtaoui, Youssef Kadir, Mohamed Azelarab Kaghat, Salem Daballa, Ranya Chani

 

NOCTURNAL SONATA (SONATA LAYLIA)

by Abdeslam Kelaï / Morocco

with Nada Haddaoui, Saad Mouaffak, Malika El Omari, Yazid Madine

 

SINCE I WAS BORN (PUISQUE JE SUIS NÉE)

by Jawad Rhalib / Morocco, Belgium

with Zahira Id Ali, Mohamed Id Ali

 

THE THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS OF HAJJ EDMOND (LES MILLE ET UN JOURS DU HAJJ EDMOND)

by Simone Bitton / Morocco, France – Documentary

with Mohamed Tozy, Leïla Shahid, Dominique Eddé, Mohamed Berrada, Hassan Bourkia, Khalil El Ghrib

 

CINEMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES & FAMILIES

 

DOUNIA, THE GREAT WHITE NORTH (DOUNIA, LE GRAND PAYS BLANC)

by Marya Zarif, André Kadi / Canada

with Manuel Tadros, Rahaf Ataya, Elza Mardirossian, Léa-Kim Lafrance-Leroux, Haydan Quitich, Mariette Niquay Ottawa

 

FLOW 

by Gints Zilbalodis / Latvia, France, Belgium

 

L'BATAL 

by Omar Lotfi / Morocco

with Omar Lotfi, Aziz Dadas, Rafik Boubker, Farah el Fassi, Fehd Benchmsi, Majdouline el Idrissi

 

SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS (SIROCCO ET LE ROYAUME DES COURANTS D'AIR)

by Benoît Chieux / France, Belgium

with Loïse Charpentier, Maryne Bertieaux, Aurélie Konaté, Pierre Lognay, Laurent Morteau, Éric De Staercke, David Dos Santos, Géraldine Asselin

 

SOMETIMES HAPPINESS, SOMETIMES SORROW (KABHI KUSHI KABHIE GHAM)

by Karan Johar / India

with Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor

 

THREE ROBBERS AND A LION (FOLK OG RØVERE I KARDEMOMME)

by Rasmus A. Sivertsen / Norway

with Anders Baasmo, Herman Breum-Lie, Hedda Grjotheim, Mads Hansen, Thorbjørn Harr, Sol Heilo, Aksel Hennie

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