'Fez Summer 55' screened at Casablanca's Fete du Cinema

CASABLANCA - The feature film "Fez Summer 55" by Moroccan director Abdelhai Laraki was screened on Saturday at the Lutetia cinema in Casablanca as part of the first edition of the "Fête du Cinema" (Film Festival).

Laraki’s film depicts a decisive period of national history, namely the struggle for independence.

The Moroccan director returned to the 1950s to document, using a cinematic approach, some of the events that Moroccans experienced during their fight for independence.

The film tells the story of Kamal (11 years old), the son of a simple traditional craftsman in the old medina of Fez, who lives the last months of the country under French protection, where he falls in love with his neighbor Aisha, 18 years old, who is involved alongside her fellow student activists from Al-Qarawiyyin University.

Kamal in turn becomes involved in the struggle for independence and the return of Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef.

Regarding the idea of ​​the work, Laraki said in a statement to the Maghreb Arab Press Agency that "through this film, I wanted to present a unique vision of the last months of the struggle for independence, through the character of Kamal, an 11-year-old child. This choice allows viewers, whether Moroccans or foreigners, to connect with history in a human and comprehensive way."

"I was particularly impressed by the reception the film received, both in Morocco and abroad, in film clubs and in colleges," he added, explaining that this testified the continued importance of these issues and the power of the seventh art in raising awareness through histories rooted in our collective heritage.

“We are very happy to once again screen in this beautiful cinema hall a feature film that has been well received by the public, which tells the story of the child Kamal who discovers the struggle for independence during the summer of 1955,” said the film’s producer, Caroline Locardi Laraki.

She added that after a great track in international festivals and in Morocco, this screening, on the occasion of the film festival, allows us to reach an audience that has not yet had the opportunity to discover this film, especially thanks to a price that is affordable for everyone.

Cinema halls in a number of cities in the North African Kingdom will host the first session of the “Cinema Festival” from September 7 to 10, which will provide the public with an exceptional opportunity to celebrate the seventh art in all its forms.

The idea of ​​the festival, organized by Nelio Agency and launched by the Moroccan Cinema Centre and the Moroccan Chamber of Cinema Halls, is to screen films in various cinemas in the Kingdom at a unified price of 30 dirhams per screening (about 3.09 US dollars), making cinema accessible to everyone.

Laraki is a Moroccan director born in 1949 in the city of Fez. He graduated from the Louis Lumière College in Paris, and studied the third cinema course at the Sorbonne with Jean Rouch, after working in the field of advertising, radio and Moroccan television.

Laraki presented many works, including “Jnah Al Hawa”, “Reeh Al Bahr”, “Mona Saber”, and “O Malo Lou”, as well as a TV series titled “Cut from a Tree.”