The class of 2014 was hosted in Ouarzazate (Morocco), in November 2013, March 2014 and June 2014, by the Ouarzazate Film Commission-OFC, then in Marrakech (Morocco), on the occasion of the Marrakech International Festival by the Marrakech International Festival Found.
Everything is ready for the summer Ziara (pilgrimage), a period when hundreds of families come to pay their respects at the graves of their deceased, under the protection of Sidi Boulekbour, a benevolent marabout nestled at the top of the ridge, who watches over the souls of the deceased from the surrounding villages. In the bus which transports the pilgrims is JOHER, a sixty-year-old who comes for the first time to pay her respects at her sister's grave. She meets ALI, gravedigger and guardian of the cemetery. She asks him to help her organize her own funeral. The organization, step by step, of JOHER's future funeral will disrupt ALI's daily life and the cemetery will then be transformed into a love theater.
This is the story of Amina, a married Tunisian who veils her deep identity to meet social demands and escape her own past. She is the wife, the mother and the adulterer too... or perhaps just the Woman in search of her truth in a chaos of socio-religious stereotypes. Overtaken by the disease of the century, she is on the verge of alienation when she finally decides to confront her "demons" and remedy her situation... The revolutionary tumult of 2011, like her identity crisis, will perhaps open the way to her liberation. Amina's story is a journey towards humanity in an ocean of unsaid and mysteries...
It’s the story of the restart of a father-daughter/coach-athlete relationship. She, a young karate champion, him, freshly released from prison. In a family drama that sighs to the rhythm of the events of the decade of terrorism in Algeria, this couple goes through its upheavals and those of a country in disorder. Together, they are heading towards a Brazilian world podium.
Taibi, 32, an illiterate unemployed man from Tangier, finds himself helping an au pair who looks after Paul, a very young child withdrawn into himself. While Paul asks Taibi to read him stories, the latter, pretending to read, in fact invents them, regaining confidence in life in view of the happiness it gives the child... until the day the mother discovers the deception...
1990, the Gulf War, a Palestinian family of five is in an emergency to evacuate Kuwait to find refuge in Jordan. She must face a long crossing of the Iraqi desert in dramatic, sometimes frightening conditions. Once she reaches Jordan, when she thought she would finally find peace, the family must face new challenges. The story is told through the eyes of their little child Adam, 8 years old.
The right choice which nevertheless always leads you to guilt. During the celebration of a major Muslim holiday, the sick father returns home after a long absence due to health problems. His youngest son is waiting for him, although very angry. They have a long conversation that brings to light all their long-suppressed and accumulated conflicts. Finally, the circumstances offered by the father's return from hospital allow this intense confrontation which has always been postponed.
A mother and her son have lived together forever. They share the same rituals, occupy the same space: a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a television, an armchair, a balcony, a view of the main street of the village... But what the son doesn't know is that they are not alone, the mother has a lover. Is it real or imaginary, authorized only under certain conditions to penetrate their privacy?
Shady and Mayvel, a young couple from Cairo, are faced with a revolution in their intimate and professional lives: should they get involved and how? What impact will their commitment or non-commitment have on their life and on their romantic relationship?
Danièle Suissa, originally from Casablanca, was deeply influenced by her childhood in Morocco, where the magic of the environment and the vibrant colors, faces,sounds, and music shaped her creative path. After studying at Marymount Paris and New York, she graduated from the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris. She began her career as a stage manager at the Theatre du Palais Royal and went on to assist renowned directors in Europe and the United States. Danièle collaborated with Anaïs Nin on three screenplays and adapted her novel "Une Espionne Dans La Maison De L'amour" with Jeanne Moreau. In Montreal, she directed numerous plays in both English and French and co-produced films in Canada and France. She also directed commercials and taught acting, directing, and production at various institutions. Danièle later moved to Jordan and taught at the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Art before returning to Morocco.
Marcel Beaulieu is a screenwriter born in 1952 in Canada. He began his career in 1978 writing radio plays for Radio Canada1. Working in Quebec, France and Europe, he has collaborated on over eighty works, with Léa Pool, Francis Leclerc, Yves Simoneau, Michel Langlois and others. In 1997, he founded a screenplay teaching program at the Institut national de l'image et du son (INIS) in Montreal. He is best known for Gérard Corbiau's Farinelli (nominated for an Oscar in 1995 for Best Foreign Film and winner of the Golden Globe for Foreign Film).
Born in 1963 in Aderj, Morocco, Hassan Legzoulihas lived in Lille, France, since the 1980s. After studying mathematics, heturned to cinema. In 1994, he graduated as a director from INSAS, the film school in Brussels, Belgium. In 1990, he directed his first short film, Ailleurs et ici, followed by four others, Coup de gigot (1991), Le Marchand de souvenirs (1992), Là- bas si j'y suis (1993) and L'Ère du soupçon (1994).
Pierre Chevalier was born on December 25, 1945 into a bourgeois family from Lyon. After studying law, he ran away to Saint-Tropez and met his uncle Pierre Boulez. He went on to study for a master's degree in philosophy in Paris and became a babysitter for Gilles Deleuze and Fanny, where he lived for a decade. He held a number of positions in the cultural field, including at the French Secretary of State for Culture and the Centre national des lettres. From 1991 to 2003, he headed Arte's Fictions unit, producing numerous TV movies and mini-series. He then worked for the French Ministry of Culture, becoming a radio producer for France Culture. In 2009, he joined Arte as director of projects.
Catherine TULLAT is an author, screenwriter and director. She started out as a production assistant (TV movies, feature films, advertising films). Since then, she has divided her time between writing for theater, radio and television, and directing documentaries.
From 2010 to 2013, she was elected to the SACD Budget Control Commission. Reader at Cinéma du monde/CNC and deputy member of the Franco-Italian CNC commission and script doctor for various productions. She is a member of EAT. She has received several writing grants from the Fondation Beaumarchais (cinema, radio). In 2017 she was elected SACD radio administrator. In 2021 she was elected to the MACD (mutuelle des auteurs) and wrote her first novel, "PAPAMACHINE", which is currently being published.
Mama Keïta, born August 6, 1956 in Dakar, is a director and screenwriter of Franco-Guinean origin. After studying law at the University of Paris-I, he began writing screenplays. In 1981, he began his directing career with five short films, followed by Ragazzi in 1990 and Le 11ème commandement in 1997. In 1998, his director friend David Achkar died and asked him to direct his project Le Fleuve in his place. Mama Keïta travelled from Dakar to Conakry to make the film her own. Le Fleuve, released in 2002, won the Prix de la Presse at the Paris Film Festival. He then directed Le Sourire du Serpent in 2006 and L'Absence in 2009, which won the screenplay prize at Fespaco. He also contributed to the collective film L'Afrique vu par... with his short One more vote for B. Obama. Mama Keïta holds French and Guinean nationality, her mother is Vietnamese and her father Guinean.
Faouzi Bensaidi trained as an actor at the Institut d'art dramatique et d'animation culturelle in Rabat, then at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris in 1995. After directing several plays, he turned to short films in 1997, most notably La Falaise, which won 23 festival awards. He co-wrote the screenplay for André Téchiné's Loin in 1999, then signed his first feature Mille mois in 2003.
His film Volubilis was selected in the Venice Days section at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
