The Moroccan short film "Aicha" directed by Sanaa El Alaoui ( سناء العلاوي in Arabic ) and produced by Piotr Kaczorowski's
Native Line company will have it's world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland on 27th of May 2025 . This is the first time a Moroccan film has been featured at this prestigious film event, which is considered one of the festivals qualifying for Oscars. Aicha is also selected to South by Southwest London film festival on 4th and 7th of june 2025.
Moroccan director Sanaa EL Alaoui returns to the cinematic scene with her new film, "Aisha," which addresses sensitive issues considered taboo in Moroccan society, such as self-harm and rape, through the heartbreaking story of a mother and her daughter.
In detail, director Sanaa El Alaoui offers a critical artistic perspective in her film, "Aisha," which represents a reversal of traditions that cast women in a specific stereotype. She will not only narrate the story, but will also reframe the relationship between cinema and the self as she continues her cinematic experience, which relies on placing sensitive topics under the camera lens, according to what she revealed in a statement to the newspaper "Madar 21."
In an interview with the newspaper, Sanaa revealed that her film "Aisha" tells the story of a 17-year-old girl who has a tepid relationship with her mother. Her life is suddenly transformed after a tragic incident. The mother seeks to confront her reality by joining a Sufi Gnawa ritual in an attempt to improve her daughter's situation.
The film's director believes that "Aisha" is not just a film; it represents a rebellion against the challenges facing the film industry in Morocco and sends a message of hope to anyone who aspires to achieve their dreams despite the difficulties, especially since the filming conditions were not easy and witnessed many setbacks.
Sanaa revealed that "one of the most difficult challenges we faced while making this film was employing techniques that required equipment not available in Morocco. We had to import the camera and Super 8 tape from Europe to Morocco, which was fraught with administrative complications. We had to submit special requests at airports to ensure the tapes wouldn't pass through the scanners, as this could damage them."
She added, "There were concerns, especially in the event that the tape was confiscated by airport authorities or lost during travel, such as on a flight." She added, "We later transported it to Poland for development and digital scanning, as specialized laboratories for this type of work are not available in Morocco."
El Alaoui says that this experience was exhausting and stressful, but ultimately worth it, as she was satisfied with the final result.
She noted that she used numerous visual techniques in this work, employing 96 percent live-action scenes, 4 percent animation, some Super 8 footage, and documentary elements.
Sanaa El Alaoui is a Moroccan director and screenwriter. She graduated from Etvos Loránd University in Budapest, where her thesis on "The Art of the Long Take" received the Best Research Award. She also continued her studies at Oxford University, examining the development of Moroccan cinema from the colonial to post-colonial eras.
Sanaa made her directorial debut with the short documentary "Icarus," which won several international and local awards, including the Bronze Award at the Queen Palm Film Festival in California and awards at the Oued Noun, Guercif, and Casablanca Film Festivals.
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