Queens preceded by Shadow of the Butterflies
Friday, September 29 at 9:10pm | The Main Cinema
About Queens
Dir. Yasmine Benkiran | 2022 | Morocco, France | Arabic with English subtitles | 83 min
Zineb is a convicted drug dealer nearing the end of her prison sentence. When the authorities threaten to place her misbehaving daughter Ines in a child protection center, Zineb breaks out of jail, collects the girl, hijacks a truck, and takes to the road. Asma, a young mechanic who happens to be a passenger in the truck, and is forced to act as a driver for Zineb and Ines. The trio embark on a long escape that takes them across the rugged red terrain and flower-filled valleys of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains to finally reach the Atlantic ocean.
Director’s Bio
Yasmine Benkiran grew up on the Moroccan Atlantic coast. She studied philosophy and communication sciences in Paris and had her first film experiences in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and London before entering French national film school La Fémis in the screenwriting workshop (l’Atelier Scénario). Yasmine writes for both television and cinema and has written two books about Morocco as well as a series of podcasts about Alice Guy, the world's first female director. In 2018, Yasmine directed her first short film, Winter Time (Tangier IFF, Off-courts Trouville). Queens is her first feature film.
About Shadow of the Butterflies
Dir. Sofia El Khayri | 2022 | France, Morocco, Portugal, Qatar | Arabic with English subtitles | 9 min
Obsessed by the memory of a past love, a woman takes refuge in the contemplation of butterflies that seem to populate a mysterious forest. In the grip of a complex feeling of bittersweet nostalgia, she brings together daydream and reality, fantasy and frustration, pleasure and pain. Believing she is escaping reality, the woman actually confronts it and unconsciously prepares for a rebirth. Shadow of the Butterflies is a beautifully animated mediation on life and love.
Director’s Bio
Sofia El Khyari grew up in Casablanca and later moved to Paris to study cultural management. It was here that she taught herself the craft of animation. She directed her first short film before obtaining her master’s degree in animation from the Royal College of Art in London. Her films have since won several awards and been screened at more than 60 international festivals. El Khyari’s recent work has been supported by international institutions such as the animation residency of la Cinémathèque Québecoise (Montréal), AFAC grant (Beirut), and the Annecy animation festival pitching focus (France). El Khyari’s life experience has allowed her to develop the sensitive internal universe portrayed in her work. She explores the themes of poetry, science, spirituality, absurdity and surrealism. Within her work, we see a recurring female figure, powerful and troubling, yet simultaneously soft and gentle.
Presented by Mizna
Mizna is a critical platform for contemporary literature, film, art, and cultural production centering the work of Arab and Southwest Asian and North African artists. For more than twenty years, we have been creating a decolonized cultural space to reflect the expansiveness of our community and to foster exchange, examine ideas, and engage audiences in meaningful art.