L'Armée du salut
Abdellah Taïa
At the end of the 1990s in a working-class area of Casablanca, young Abdellah tries to find his identity in a large family, between his elder brother, who he adores, and an authoritarian mother. In Geneva, ten years later, Abdellah, determined never to give in, has to take risks to be able to finally live his own life.
With : SaidMrini, Karim Ait M'hand, Amine Ennaji
Screenplay : Abdellah Taïa
Image : Agnès Godard
Editing : Francoise Tourmen
Sound : Henri Maikoff, Fanny Martin, Christophe Vingtrinier
Screenplay : Abdellah Taïa
Image : Agnès Godard
Editing : Francoise Tourmen
Sound : Henri Maikoff, Fanny Martin, Christophe Vingtrinier
Production : Les Films de Pierre
Distribution: Rezo Films
Distribution: Rezo Films
Abdellah Taïais a Moroccan French-language writer. After studying French literature at the Mohamed V University in Rabat, the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, he published, at the Editions du Seuil, several short story collections and novels in which he talks about his youth and his homosexuality (Mon Marocin 2000, Une mélancolie arabe in 2008, etc.). In 2010, he won the Prix de Florefor his novel Le Jour du roi. He moved behind the camera in 2013 and directed L'Armée du salut (Salvation Army), an adaptation of his autobiography published under the same title in 2006. He is currently working on his second feature. "Without looking to cause a scandal, L'Armée du Salut deals head on with the question of homosexuality in a particular geography, Morocco, its reality in a family, in the alleyways of a working-class neighbourhood of Casablanca. I tried to distance myself from the clichés within the country and outside. I had to give an uncompromising view of the raw truth, the truth of Morocco, my truth. Filming characters who express, almost without speaking, all the damaging ambiguities of this country. The expression of an "I" is possible, but at what price?" AbdellahTaïa