Moroccan diasporic cinema: the ‘rooted transnationalism’ of the cinéastes de passage

ABSTRACT

This article aims to revisit ideas concerning diasporic filmmaking and the transnational originally put forward by the author in the inaugural edition of this journal in 2010. It focuses specifically on the conditions and experiences of diasporic Moroccan filmmakers, considering how their work is produced and circulates on both a global and local level. The article develops the notion of ‘rooted transnationalism’ to describe the approach of a specific group of diasporic filmmakers: the cinéastes de passage. The cinéastes de passage are Moroccan filmmakers whose movement between the West and Maghreb is dictated by the political, artistic and economic conditions of each new project and who maintain a presence both within and between the cinematographic cultures and industries in Europe and Morocco. The article argues that these filmmakers have played a key role in the success, diversity and transnational visibility of Moroccan cinema over the past 25 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Moroccan cinema
• rooted transnationalism
• diaspora
• co-production

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) for funding the research activities that informed this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Of course, configuring production output in relation to theatrical features, does not account for the phenomenal success of popular Nigerian cinema (Nollywood) which, through a production model based on low budgets, varying production values and a distribution model aimed directly at VHS, DVD and later a streaming market (by passing theatrical distribution altogether) was, by the mid-1990s producing upwards of 2000 films a year. The Nollywood model, which has been adopted by entrepreneurial filmmakers across the African continent has, until recently operated largely in parallel with the more traditional production and distribution of feature films that focuses on theatrical and festival releases.

2. See data on exhibition contained within the CCM’s annual survey of Moroccan cinema, the Bilan Cinématographique, available in digital form at www.ccm.ma .

3. According to recent figures from the CCM (Bilan Cinématographique 2017, available at www.ccm.ma), foreign production companies shot 27 feature films, 6 short films, 9 TV series and 56 documentaries in Morocco in 2017 with a total investment of almost MAD 500m.

4. An argument raised by Moroccan producer Lamia Chraibi during a panel on international co-production at the 19^th Festival National du Film, Tangier, 10 March 2018.

5. The two main sources for this information come from the CCM website and data on co-production and European theatrical distribution available on the European Audio-visual Observatory’s online Lumière database.

6. See Carter (2009, 227–29); Bakrim 2017; Semmar, interview with Jamal Bahmad for Transnational Moroccan Cinema project 2017; Hicham Lasri, interview with Jamal Bahmad for Transnational Moroccan Cinema project, September 2017.

7. This assessment of Ayouch’s work was offered by a number of Moroccan filmmakers present in discussion with the American TV producer and showrunner Alan Boul at a workshop chaired by Ahmed El-Maanouni at the FNF in Tangier, March 2017.

8. The term host nation brings its own set of complications, bias and blind spots. It immediately associates the immigrant and his/her descendants as temporary ‘guests’ in a foreign country and culture – regardless of how long they might have lived in the country, whether (as in the case of the children of immigrants) they have been born or raised from a young age in the ‘host’ nation or if they have obtained citizenship or permanent right to remain. For an example of a film which explores this ambivalent notion of the host nation and the ‘return’ to the homeland for the descendants of Maghrebi immigrants born and/or raised in France, see Bye-bye (Dridi, 1995).

9. El Arbi and Fallah co-directed the pilot episode (2017) of the series and Series 1, episode 2 ‘Make Them Birds Fly’ (2017).

10. Volubilis was awarded the Grand prix du jury; Award for the script (written by Faouzi Bensaïdi); Best female actor for Nadia Kounda; best male actor for Mouhcine Malzi; best original music for Mike and Fabien Kourtzer. The film also received Prix de la critique awarded by the association of Moroccan critics, and Prix des ciné-clubs from the national association of ciné-club.

11. In WWW: what a wonderful world (Bensaidi, 2006) the serial killer muffles the sound of gunshot by systematically opening every single faucet in the bathroom. In Volubilis, having ordered Abdelkader’s torture, the government official covers the sound in a similar fashion by opening all windows looking out onto the street below. Two friends in Volubilis try acting like fundamentalists by putting kohl around their eyes, just as they had in Death for Sale (2011). In Volubilis, a couple starts a possible love story over the phone, just like in WWW.

12. Films by directors Bensaïdi, Besri and Hadid have appeared on niche/arthouse streaming platforms such as Filmatique (in the US) and MUBI (in the UK), as well via Amazon and affiliated TVOD platforms. Nour-eddine Lakhmari’s fourth feature film Burnout (2017) was co-produced by the Arab streaming platform iCFlix – whose lofty ambitions to become the Arab Netflix have been significantly scaled back in the last 12 months. Ayouch is the only Moroccan filmmaker to date whose work has appeared on streaming giant Netflix. Online streaming platforms thus represent considerable potential for the future transnational reach of the Moroccan cinéastes de passage beyond a limited theatrical release or exposure on the international festival circuit. However, the presence of these filmmakers and their films is still limited on these platforms, with coverage and visibility for their films uneven and far from guaranteed.

13. This point was made by Chraïbi when speaking as part of a round-table on Moroccan production at the Moroccan Cinema Uncut conference in Edinburgh, October 2018.

14. Will Higbee, Skype interview with Hakim Belabbes, June 2018.

15. Will Higbee, Skype interview with Hakim Belabbes, June 2018.

16. Flo Martin and Will Higbee, interview with Jilali Ferhati, Tetouan, November 2017.

17. Comments made by Lamia Chraïbi, on a panel on Arab Cinema, European Film Market, Berlin, February 2016.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Will Higbee

Will Higbee is Professor of Film Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, University of Exeter (UK). He has published widely in the areas of contemporary French cinema, immigrant and post-colonial cinemas in France, cinemas of the Maghreb and questions of national and transnational cinema. He is the author of ‘Mathieu Kassovitz’ (MUP, 2006) and ‘Post-beur cinema’ (EUP, 2013) and the co-editor of ‘Studies in French Cinema: UK perspectives 1985-2010ʹ (Intellect, 2010) and ‘De-Westernizing Film Studies’ (Routledge 2012). Between 2015-18 he was the principal investigator for a three-year research project on Transnational Moroccan Cinema, funded by the AHRC.