MEKTOUB by Nabil Ayouch is a modern thriller and describes the wide gap between the poor and the rich. Soon after a young ophtalmologist returns home after a few years abroad, his young wife is kidnapped. Searching for the perpetrators, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between corrupt authorities and poor hemp farmers who grow their crop illegally.

The melodrama FEMMES... ET FEMMES by Saad Chraibi enjoyed great success in Moroccan cinemas. It is about a television journalist who fights for women's rights and consequently loses her show. The women who confided in her suffer grave consequences.

The place of women in North African society is a frequent subject in Moroccan cinema. The only active woman director in Morocco, Farida Benlyazid was asked to make a film about violence against women. Her answer - as well as her refusal to portray violence in the film - is a subtle, feminist adaptation of a traditional fairytale, KEID ENSA (Women's Wiles). The Forum presents the film as a world premiere.

Daoud Aoulas Syad's film ADIEU FORAIN is a melancholy roadmovie set in the south of Morocco, a region which has fallen into oblivion. It describes the end of traditional fairground entertainment as well as futile dreams of escaping from the province.

Modern Morocco is featured in the intelligent comedy LES CASABLANCAIS by Abdelkader Lagtaa. In three interwoven stories we encounter fear felt by city-dwellers about fundamentalism and unpredictable authorities.

To complete the programm, the Forum also shows the stylistically brilliant, black and white cinemascope short film LA FALAISE (The Cliff) by Faouzi Bensaidi. 

The series has been prepared in cooperation with the House of the World Cultures where the films will be repeated after the Forum screenings.

January 21st, 1999