17/05/2024 - CANNES 2024: As a singer and a woman in search of freedom, Nisrin Erradi magnetises a poignant, classic yet imperfect melodrama by Nabil Ayouch

“Now is the time to try my luck.” For the daughter of poor Moroccan peasants who has become a singer in a small town where she is bringing up her nine-year-old deaf-mute son alone, life is not the easiest in an environment dominated by men and in a world of nightlife where their desires can be exacerbated to the point of abuse. She has to know how to defend herself, fight for her independence, get up when she's down and bruised, and believe in a better future in Casablanca, where she could fulfil her artistic potential as a ‘cheikha’ (performer of the aïta, a traditional song based on the cry).

By choosing such a heroine for his new film, Everybody Loves Touda [+see also:
trailer
film profile], unveiled as part of the Cannes Première programme at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, French-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch is happily following in the musical footsteps of Casablanca Beats [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], without deviating from his favourite theme: the fierce desire for freedom often hampered by Moroccan society.

Opening with a powerful, high-intensity scene, the film unfolds in two parts (a screenplay written by the filmmaker and Maryam Touzani). The film first details the life of Touda, a singer at weddings, fairs and nightclubs where she has to work hard in the face of competition and male appetites (‘I'm not a whore’), the hidden mistress of a married police inspector, and the loving mother of Yasine (Joud Chamihy). Then the young woman attempts the adventure of going to Casablanca, where she knows no one and where a tough apprenticeship in the wide world awaits her (“she thinks she's Oum Kalthoum”, “you're going to have to improve, you're still a long way from mastering the rhythm and you're pretentious”). Will Touda succeed in fulfilling her great hopes, and is reality really what she dreams of?

Carried by a fantastic Nisrin Erradi (whose slightest tremors are sensually explored by the camera) and an excellent score by Danish composer Flemming Nordkrog, Everybody Loves Touda unfolds as a classic melodrama (admittedly a little heavy-handed at times, but that's in keeping with the genre) of very good quality. But a strange narrative acceleration (no doubt due to rushed editing or an ill-judged intention to shorten the film's running time) in the home stretch throws the whole thing off balance a little and prevents the film from reaching the heights its leading actor was ready to take it to.

Everybody Loves Touda was produced by Ali n’ Productions (Maroc) with Les Films du Nouveau Monde (France), Velvet Films (Belgium), Snowglobe Film (Denmark), Viking Film (Netherlands) et Staer (Norway), and internationally sold by mk2 Films.

(Translated from French by Margaux Comte)