Co-written by Nathalie Saugeon
Cinematography by Renaat Lambeets and Vincent Mathias
Edited by Jean-Robert Thomann
Original music by Krishna Levy
Morocco/Tunisia/France/Belgium, 2000, color, BetaSP, 2.35:1, distributed by Film Movement, 98 min.
Cast: Mounim Kbab, Mustapha Hansali, Hicham Moussoune, Abdelhak Zhayra
Arabic/French with English subtitles
The chemkaras (street kids) of Casablanca lead brutal,
hand-to-mouth existences punctuated by begging, glue-sniffing, and
searching for safe places to sleep. Dib is the older leader of a
rag-tag army of urchins, but 15-year-old Ali has taken three of the
kids away from Dib’s tyrannical, abusive treatment. Ali’s dream of
going off to sea in a fishing boat is cruelly cut short by one of Dib’s
gang members. Filmmaker Nabil Ayouch then shifts his focus to Kwita,
Omar, and Boubker younger boys who move mountains to bring Ali’s
unrealized dream into a posthumous reality. Despite their grim
surroundings of unkind adults (except for an old fisherman and Ali’s
prostitute mother), dirt, hunger, cold, and lack of money, the three
boys show the power of friendship and love.-- Chale Nafus