Burned Hearts

This film recounts through archival documents and eyewitness accounts, the history of "The Moroccan Goumiers" during the two world wars and the Indo-china war. A story that starts from the beginning of the French protectorate in Morocco.

Fadma is an active Moroccan woman, a mother who, after the death of her husband, raised her two children alone: Ahmed is her pride and joy, having succeeded in France, and Karim is the eccentric artist who still lives with her. Sensing danger around her son Ahmed, she decides to visit him in France. And it's here that she discovers the problem of her granddaughter Julie-Aïcha, a teenager in search of her identity. Fadma and Julie-Aïcha discover a new shared passion.

The young farmer Abdelwahad has been the head of the family since his father’s death. Struggling to feed his seven brothers, and discouraged by the lack of prospects, he becomes attracted by the offer of a relative to go and work in France.

A portrait of the groundbreaking Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, documenting a series of electrifying live performances in Tunisia, Morocco, and France; on the streets of Casablanca; and in intimate conversations. Storytellers through song and traditional instruments, and with connections to political theatre, the band became a local phenomenon and an international sensation, thanks to their rebellious lyrics and sublime, fully acoustic sound, which draws on Berber rhythms, Malhun sung poetry, and Gnawa dances.

A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions. The short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s. It calls attention to the lack of African Americans in the film industry during that era.

Casablanca, 2003. 14 young hard-rockers are arrested and condemned for sentences from 3 months to 1 year. What are the accusations? Satanism and shaking the foundations of Islam. Based on actual events.

“Morocco–France: A Shared History” is a three-part documentary series directed by Ahmed El Maânouni that explores the complex, intertwined past and present of Morocco and France. Through archival images, expert testimonies, and historical analysis, the series revisits more than a century of political, social, and cultural relations between the two countries from the Protectorate era to the challenges of the contemporary world.

This documentary is based on my own conversations with Driss Chraïbi one year before his death on April 1, 2007.