Festival in Focus: Marrakech Weaves Its Magic To Pull In A-Listers, Oscar Hopefuls & Timely Gen Z Titles

The 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival kicks off on Friday with Gus Van Sant’s crime drama Dead Man’s Wire as the opening film.

The director and his cast will not be in attendance, but a host of other Hollywood A-listers and international heavy hitters are making the trip to the festival, which insists it does not pay fees for its starry line.

The authentic feel of the festival, charm of the city and its storied Mamounia Hotel hub, combined with the extensive A-list contact book of longtime Festival Director Mélita Toscan du Plantier and the indie cinema network of Artistic Director Remi Bonhomme have worked their magic instead.

Jodie Foster and Guillermo del Toro touch down for honorary awards and screenings of Private Life and Frankenstein respectively, while Oscar-winning Parasite director Bong Joon Ho presides over a jury featuring actresses Anya Taylor-Joy, Jenna Ortega and Celine Song.

They will be joined by Oscar-nominated Past Lives director Celine Song, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz (Firebrand), Moroccan docu-fiction director Hakim Belabbes (Collapsed Walls), Palme d’Or Titane winner Julia Ducournau, and Iranian actor and director Payman Maadi (A Separation).

Further guests across the festival, running from November 28 to December 6, include directors Andrew Dominik, Laurence Fishburne, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Jafar Panahi; actress and filmmaker Nadine Labaki, Bollywood mover and shaker Karan Johar, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer, actor Tahar Rahim and Egyptian cinema icon Yousra.

Art Imitating Life

This year’s edition opens just six weeks after youth-led protests swept Morocco’s big cities, sparked by frustration over a lack of investment in public services as the country ramps up spending for the 2030 World Cup, which it is hosting alongside Portugal and Spain.

Political commentators have likened the demonstrations to a raft of other Gen Z movements that have sprung up in places like Madagascar, Nepal, and Peru over the past year.

The Moroccan movement has lost steam for now following a crackdown on protestors and a government pledge to invest an extra $16 billion in education and health as well as measures to engage under 35s more in mainstream politics.

But the Gen Z spirit is alive and kicking in the Marrakech competition line-up, focused on first and second feature titles, which was scouted and invited long before the protest movement took off.

“This year’s selection reflects a trend I’ve seen a lot over the past two, three years in that young filmmakers for their first films are developing work that is very politically aware. They explore injustice and the histories of their countries,” says Bonhomme.

“They don’t confront these questions directly, but rather in a very subtle way, with stories that are at the intersection of personal memories and the collective history.”

He points to Shih-Han Tsao’s Before The Bright Day, a coming of age tale set against the backdrop of the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, in which China conducted missile tests in the waters off the island state; Akinola Davies Jr.’s drama My Father’s Shadow, about two brothers reunited with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, and Zamo Mkhwanazi’s Apartheid era drama Laundry, about a family set to lose is business under the racist rules.

“There are also a number of films exploring what happens to teenage friendship when it faces the challenge of political awakening,” adds Bonhomme. “I think this reflects the fact that today’s youngsters are living in a very complex political world where the political awakening is happening at quite early age.”

He highlights UK artist, musician and filmmaker Imran Peretta’s drama Ish about Muslim two from different backgrounds growing up in the outer London town of Luton, whose friendship is tested when they are subject to a racially profiled police stop-and-search.

“It’s brilliant,” says Bonhomme of the film. “You also have it in Amoeba about a gang of girls who try also to find their own political way in the very polished society of Singapore.

Other themes include strong women in Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away and Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky, which also tackle the issue of inter-African racism, as well as the rise of features made by directors who are also recognized for their work in other fields such as artist and musician Peretta; First Light director James J. Robinson, who is a fashion photographer, and Straight Circle director Oscar Hudson, who has won prizes for his music videos.

Further titles in the running for the competition’s top prize of the Golden Star (Etoile d’Or) include Ondřej Provazník’s abuse of power thriller Broken Voices (Czech Republic), Lucía Aleñar Iglesias (Spain) about a girl with a strange bond with her grandmother; US-Libyan director Jihan K’s documentary about her father’s disappearance My Father and Qaddafi, and Vladlena Sandu’s Memory, revisiting her childhood in war-torn Chechyna.

All the contenders make their MENA premieres at the festival from Moroccan director Meryem Benm’barek’s Behind The Palm Trees – a psychological thriller exploring class relations and social domination, which will world premiere at the festival

It is among nine world and international premieres across the wider selection which also include Marwan Hamed’s highly anticipated biopic El Sett starring Egyptian megastar Mona Zaki as legendary singer, Umm Kulthum, and Tunisian director Dhafner L’Abidine’s Sophia.

Joon Ho – with his penchant for satire and political allegory – feels like a fitting choice as jury president this year, but Bonhomme insists this did not impact his choice of films.

“Of course, when you have such a jury president, you don’t want to disappoint him, but I would never try to find films that resemble that of the jury president’s cinema… I hope he will be surprised by the selection and I’m very excited to have him discovering the amazing talent we have in region with the  films we have from Nigeria, South Africa, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.”

Bonhomme does not shy away from discussing the political context of the leadup to the festival.

“The demonstration in Morocco illustrates how youth everywhere in the world are trying to raise their voice to question their future,” he said.

“It wasn’t a deliberate decision to make a very political competition. It reflects the films young filmmakers are making, which in turn reflect the political awareness of youth everywhere in the world.

Beyond the 14 films in competition, the festival will showcase another 68 titles across Gala Screenings, the world cinema-focused sidebar Horizons, the 11th Continent program, showcasing innovative cinema, the Moroccan Panorama and a Young Audiences and Families selection.

Oscar Stop-off

Unfolding just days before the preliminary voting period for the 98th Academy Awards, running from December 9 to 14, Marrakech is an important stop-off for films in the running.

This year’s section includes a raft of hopefuls including the Best International Feature Film entries Calle Málaga (Morocco), Homebound (India), Palestine 36 (Palestine), It Was Just An Accident (France), No Other Choice (Korea), The President’s Cake (Iraq), The Love That Remains (Iceland), My Armenian Phantoms (Armenia), Sirât (Spain), All That Is Left Of You (Jordan), A Sad And Beautiful World (Lebanon) and The Voice Of Hind Rejab (Tunisia).

Bonhomme acknowledges Marrakech has become a strategic festival to attend in the Oscar race, but notes that most of the country entries, were selected long before being announced as candidates.

“We also have a lot of American productions in the race like Frankenstein and Hamnet as well as Dead Man’s Wire, which is a great comeback for Gus Van Sant,” says the Artistic Director. “We have a lot of Academy voting members at the festival and this year we will also welcome Academy CEO Bill Kramer.

“We worked particularly closely with the U.S. distributors this year. Managing to have to have Jafar Panahi come at the festival during this period was quite challenging, but he really wanted to come, and Neon was convinced that it was important for him to come because of all the guests we have.”

Aside from assisting at the screening of his film, Panahi will is among top cinema figures who will participate in the Conversation Joon Ho, del Toro, Foster, Kramer and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho.

As well as programming the festival, Bonhomme has also spearheaded a restructuring and bolstering of all the professional initiatives supported by the festival foundation, gathering these activities under the umbrella of the Atlas Programs.

He says the initiative has been well-received by buyers and sellers alike and also helped the festival secure the premieres of Behind The Palm Trees, El Sett and Sophia.

One new initiative that has had a bearing on the film program is the launch of the Atlas Distribution Meetings, a new four-day event that bringing 60 distribution professionals from the Arab world, Africa, and Europe in Marrakech, for talks and to screen films in the selection.

“Sales agents were telling me that they were missing an event at the end of the year where they could meet with their buyers, so I came up with this idea, which has been very well received and allowed me to have more world premieres,” he said.