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PRODUCTION Morocco / France

Nabil Ayouch shooting Casablanca Beats

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- The director of Much Loved and Razzia is hard at work in Morocco on a feature being staged by Ali N' Productions and Les Films du Nouveau Monde

Nabil Ayouch shooting Casablanca Beats
Director Nabil Ayouch

Nabil Ayouch has been in Morocco since 16 July shooting his seventh feature-length fiction film, Casablanca Beats [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(working title: Positive School), which brings together a cast consisting solely of non-professional actors. After having risen to fame in the Berlinale Forum in 1999 with Mektoub, the filmmaker was festooned with awards at international festivals in 2000-2001 thanks to Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets, and he then went on to be selected twice at Cannes (with God’s Horses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ayouch
film profile
]
in Un Certain Regard in 2012 and Much Loved [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
in the 2015 Directors’ Fortnight; the two titles were then nominated for the Lumières Award for Best French-language Film). His latest opus, Razzia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ayouch
film profile
]
, was unveiled at Toronto last year, in the Platform competition.

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The story of Casablanca Beats, written by Ayouch himself, is based on events that took place in a real cultural centre slap bang in the middle of Sidi Moumen, where former rapper Anas teaches young children to express themselves through song and hip-hop dancing. The film will primarily follow Anas and the students who are in his class. They will attempt to overcome the obstacles that stand in their way as they try to learn hip-hop, such as their families’ objection to young girls singing and dancing, which some people claim is forbidden by Islam.

Produced by Morocco’s Ali N' Productions and French outfit Les Films du Nouveau MondeCasablanca Beatsis being co-produced by Paris-based Unité de Production and has secured backing from the CNC’s World Cinema Support and the Moroccan Film Support Fund. The seven-week shoot, which kicked off on 16 July, is scheduled to take place in Morocco in three tranches, wrapping in late January 2019. The French distribution will be overseen by Ad Vitam.

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(Translated from French)

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