Director Ayouch represented Morocco in the international feature Oscar competition for the fifth time last year with the high-energy Casablanca Beats. The action takes place at a cultural center that Ayouch co-founded in Casablanca’s sprawling shantytown Sidi Moumen. It’s the same neighborhood where the director set his 2012 feature Horses of God. He uses current and former students of the center’s dance, hip-hop and rap programs in a touching, fictional film based on their lives. Encouraged by a new teacher, a maverick rapper, the students try to break free from the weight of restrictive traditions to live their passions. Ayouch says, “These young people are full of energy and positivity. In a lively and contemporary Casablanca, far from the clichés about the Arab world, they express their desires and their hunger for freedom through hip hop. Their only weapons are their words. And they deserve to be heard everywhere.”
Director Biography
Nabil Ayouch is a Frano-Moroccan filmmaker whose films have appeared in festivals around the world. His credits include Mektoub (1997), Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000), Whatever Lola Wants (2007), Horses of God (2012), Much Loved (2015), and Razzia (2017). Casablanca Beats (2021) appeared at the Cannes Film Festival.
Sponsors
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