become a Moroccan storyteller
groupie, collecting tales for his In
Arabian Nights: In Search of Morocco
Through its Stories and Storytellers –
for more from Tahir Shah Click here.In Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a
Desert Jail, Malika Oufkir describes
her demotion from courtier to prisoner
after her father’s plot to assassinate
Hassan II. After its success as an
Oprah Book Club selection, the movie
version is forthcoming.and abroad. Among the most famous works to be published by
a Moroccan author are Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem
Girlhood and The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist
Interpretation of Islam, both by Fatima Mernissi, an outspoken
feminist and professor at the University of Rabat. In Rabati
author Leila Abouzeid’s The Year of the Elephant and The
Director and Other Stories from Morocco , tales of Moroccan women trying to reinvent life on
their own terms become parables for Morocco’s search for independence after colonialism.
The past few years have brought increased acclaim for
Moroccan writers, who have continued to address highly
charged topics despite repeated press crackdowns. Inspired
by Anfas/Souffles, Fez-born expatriate author Tahar ben
Jelloun combined poetic devices and his training as a
psychotherapist in his celebrated novel The Sand Child, the
story of a girl raised as a boy by her father in Marrakesh, and
its sequel The Sacred Night , which won France’s Prix
Goncourt. In The Polymath , 2009 Naguib Mahfouz Prize–
winner Bensalem Himmich reads between the lines of 14th-century scholar and political exile
Ibn Khuldun, as he tries to stop wars and prevent his own isolation. Several recent Moroccan
novels have explored the promise and trauma of emigration, notably Mahi Binebine’s harrowing
Welcome to Paradise, Tahar ben Jelloun’s Leaving Tangier, and Laila Lalami’s celebrated
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits .
MOROCCO’S LANDMARK CINEMA REVIVAL
Despite Morocco’s creative boom, cinephiles have begun to fear for Morocco’s movie palaces, since ticket prices can’t
compete with cheap pirated DVDs. In 2007, only 5% of Morocco’s population went to the movies, while more than 400,000
pirated DVDs were symbolically seized from souq stalls in Rabat and Casablanca. Thirty years ago, there were 250 cinemas
in Morocco; in 2010, only 30 were left.
Moroccan cinema buffs are rallying with Save Cinemas in Morocco (savecinemasinmorocco.com), an initiative that is
preserving and promoting Morocco’s historic movie palaces as architectural wonders and key modern landmarks in Morocco’s
ancient storytelling tradition. Tangier’s 1930s Cinema Rif reopened in 2006 as Tangier Cinematheque, a nonprofit cinema
featuring international independent films and documentaries. Another endangered landmark currently undergoing restoration is
Marrakesh’s Cinema Eden, the mudbrick cinema right off the Djemaa el-Fna.
The Moroccan government is showing initiative, too: in 2008, the state launched Aflam, a new, free, national TV channel
showcasing Moroccan-made movies, and films dubbed or subtitled in French, Darija and Tamazight. With the runaway
success of the Marrakesh International Film Festival, state-sponsored movie festivals are springing up across Morocco; check
http://www.maghrebarts.ma/cinema.html for schedules.Cinema
On Location in Morocco
Until recently Morocco has been seen mostly as a stunning movie backdrop, easily stealing
scenes in such dubious cinematic achievements as Sex and the City II, Prince of Persia,
Alexander, Ishtar, Troy and Sahara . But while there’s much to cringe about in Morocco’s IMDB