Namibian Premiere of Moroccan Oscar entry
The screening is part of African Perspectives, a monthly African cinema series hosted in Windhoek, organised by AfricAvenir and supported by AfriCine, JacMat, the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre, the Goethe-Centre/Nads, and Turipamwe Designs.
On Saturday, 28 March, 19h00, Namibian audience are invited to attend the Namibian Premiere of Faouzi Bensaïdi’s critically acclaimed Oscar-entry “Death for Sale” (Morocco, 117 min, 2011).
“Death for Sale” deals with religious fundamentalism, abuse of power and the failure of society to provide opportunities for its citizens. A town that is under a permanently low, heavy sky, three losers, a dream of grandeur, a jewellery store, and a woman who arrives in town.
Synopsis: Three friends strive to preserve their loyalty to each other in spite of a corrupt society. These young men live in Tétouan, an impoverished Moroccan city. Soufiane, the youngest, spends his days pilfering. Allal, the oldest, is trying to gain a foothold as a drug dealer. Malik falls in love with Dounia who works as a prostitute in a night club. The three friends part to make their own way in life, but before long it looks as though their futures will founder in a maelstrom of violence, greed, jealousy and betrayal. Seeing no other way out, they decide to get together and raid a jeweller’s shop.
Faouzi Bensaïdi gives his relaxed young actors plenty of room to manoeuvre. His work casts a spell on account of a visual style that is both laconic and powerful and demonstrates how each friend’s dream of happiness only serves to drive a wedge between them. Beneath permanently leaden city clouds they nonetheless find a way to treat each other with generosity and trust.
Bensaïdi said about his film, “It is a story about young men who want to live a good life but are stuck in a wall that keeps them from fulfilling their desires and dreams. At the same time, it is also a film about dreams that became a nightmare because they did not have the possibilities – be it due to the lack of education or the economic and political situation – to access these dreams. I am always fascinated by weak characters. In the film, there are no bad guys, they may seem to be, but they are not.”
“I want to portray Morocco in the present time to tell the world that our country is also modern. For years, the only image we see of Morocco is the same traditional images of men and women.”
“The relationship with spirituality is something that interests me a lot,” says Bensaïdi. “I don’t want to just tell what is good and bad, what is right and wrong. I want to talk about the madness, the impossibility of situations.”
Where: Goethe Centre Windhoek, Fidel Castro St.
When: Saturday, 28 March 2015.
Time: 19h00.
Entrance: N$40
