Faouzi Bensaïdi | Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, France, Germany | 2011 | 117’ | In Arabic | English subtitles
Death for Sale, Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi’s third feature-length film, won the prestigious CICAE Award in the panorama section of the last Berlinale. The jury praised the film “for its, at the same time, respectful and original reflection on the genre film noir, for its tragic and emotional power and for its force as a document of the impasse of a certain youth at the moment of the breakout of the Arab Spring.” Malik, Allal and Soufiane are three friends who make their living as pickpockets in the streets of Tetouan, a port city in northern Morocco. They see no chance of a change for the better, like finding a job. One day, they decide to take their destiny in their own hands and plan a heist on a jewellery shop. Malik because he wants to free his girl Dounia from prostitution; Allal because he needs the cash to become a serious player in the drug trade; Soufiane because he happens to have a bone to pick with the jeweller. Devising the plan and actually executing it turn out to be two very different things. Bensaïdi, who also wrote the script, said: “It is a film about impossible desires which in the end will be fatal for all who cherish them.”
Screenings:
THU 16 AUG - 21:30 | Marie Heinekenplein FRI 17 AUG - 19:00 | Rialto
