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Noise and fury
by Abdellah Zerouali
The current Moroccan cinema is like a baby who cries all the time and starts screaming for no specific reason. We do not know if it's because of his teeth starting to grow, or if he's just hungry. Because in our country, babies are as greedy as adults. At home, there is food and drink, as long as you know how to do it. But those who chose the profession of filmmaker, by vocation, did not know in what galley they were going to sail. Arrivism, favoritism and unfair competition are now commonplace. To situate the phenomenon of cinema in space and time, it seems to me necessary to appeal to historical considerations.
1 / In the middle of the last century (1956) France and Spain renounced their respective protectorates over the Kingdom of Morocco. Popular resistance was for something, but it was not just for that reason. France wanted to devote itself to the Algerian war and Spain wanted to keep the Moroccan Sahara known as "Western Sahara". It was at this time that it was necessary to create a Moroccan cinema, given the popular enthusiasm that would have welcomed it. The population of our country was estimated at only 8 million (now 45 million) and yet the national film attendance was going well. Moroccan television did not exist yet but it would not have changed because the cinemas were programming foreign films of popular and high quality nature.
2 / Today we want to recover the cinemas that have closed their doors and even create others. But we do not know how to do it. Yet it is simple and possible. It would be enough to produce popular films, intended primarily for the general public and not only for festival juries. Unfortunately, when you try to "get the cake and eat it" you always end up having neither one nor the other.
