LE JOLI MAI

“We wanted to make modern films. Films that questioned reality. At the same time, we knew that things weren’t moving forward in Morocco. We hoped that things would change politically. But we knew that as long as they didn’t, we couldn’t carry out our projects.

In Poland, we learned about the importance of social issues. We learned that we couldn’t ignore the conditions people lived in. We wanted to make films that asked questions, questioned realities, political, social, and societal taboos, but also presented the subject matter in an accessible way. We followed examples from Czech and Polish cinema.

The socialist context was similar to the Moroccan context. There was censorship and control by the public authorities. One had to insinuate ideas without the authorities finding a way to stop them. Our experience in Poland helped us to outsmart the authorities.”