Razzia (2017)

2017 | Drama | International

119 mins Morocco

After 2015's much-lauded Much Loved, internationally renowned director Nabil Ayouch returns with his most ambitious film to date. Spanning different decades and several storylines, Ayouch weaves an intricate tale of lost loves, forbidden desires, and fragile dreams in modern day Morocco.

Razzia opens in 1982, in the starkly beautiful landscapes of the Atlas Mountains. There, an idealistic teacher (Amine Ennaji) passionately works to expand the minds of the village children and falls in love with an independent and stoically beautiful widow. Cut to Casablanca, 2015. Here we encounter: the stunning and powerfully free Salima (Maryam Touzani, co-writer of the script with Ayouch), who refuses the traditional stereotypes of wife, mother, and even woman; a Jewish café owner, Monsieur Joe (Arieh Worthalter), caught between honouring his past and his desires; the troubled bourgeois teen Inès (Dounia Binebine); and part-time singer and full-time Freddie Mercury fan Hakim (Abdelilah Rachid). Though their lives are disparate, Ayouch navigates their realities nimbly, creating a cumulative effect of witnessing a complex tapestry of life in this capital city.

With references to Michael Curtiz's Casablanca and infused with an evocatively eerie score, Razzia (from Algerian Arabic, meaning "raid") is a formidable work from one of the most assured directors working — not just in the Maghreb but globally.