Fez — Moroccan-origin filmmaker Manal Chahboun is set to compete in the official selection of the first “Festival du film wallon” (Walloon Film Festival), which will run from April 2 to April 25 across five Belgian provinces, according to the festival’s official program.
Chahboun’s short film “C.Q.F.D.” — short for “C’est quasi foutu, docteur” — appears in the lineup of 10 French-speaking Belgian short films competing in the festival’s inaugural edition. The event will travel through Namur on April 2, Luxembourg province on April 9, Hainaut on April 19, Walloon Brabant on April 23, and Liège on April 25, with audience members voting after screenings to award five public prizes and one grand public prize.
The film has already built momentum on the Belgian festival circuit. “C.Q.F.D.” was selected at the 17th Brussels International Women’s Film Festival, according to festival-related coverage, and was also screened in competition at the International Cinema and Immigration Festival in Agadir in December 2025.
Its strongest recognition so far has come from Liège. Festival pages for the “Festival International du Film de Comédie de Liège” (Liège International Comedy Film Festival) confirm that the film screened in the event’s Belgian cinema selection in November 2025. Secondary coverage tied to the film’s promotion says it won two awards there: best short film and best screenplay.
A social comedy built around family pressure
Official film descriptions present “C.Q.F.D.” as a short fiction comedy released in 2025 and directed and written by Chahboun. One official listing gives the runtime as 14 minutes 18 seconds, while another source circulating the film describes it as 16 minutes.
The story follows Hamid, a hospital cleaner in Brussels who has let his mother believe he is a successful gynecologist. When she suddenly arrives for a consultation, he has to improvise a full-blown masquerade to keep the truth from collapsing around him. Official descriptions frame the film as a comedy rooted in work, family, and social expectation.
That premise helps explain the film’s appeal. Its humor is built on a familiar emotional tension: the pressure to meet family expectations while trying to preserve dignity, love, and self-worth. The result is a social comedy that appears to speak both to immigrant family dynamics and to broader questions of recognition and belonging. This is an inference based on the film’s synopsis and festival framing.
A filmmaker shaped by multiple worlds
Chahboun is of Moroccan origin and has grown up at the intersection of several cultural worlds, according to recent coverage of her work. She later moved to Brussels to study production and directing while working on audiovisual and television projects. The same coverage says her screenwriting has received support and recognition from the “Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles” and the “Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques” .
Her selection for the first Walloon Film Festival adds another chapter to a promising run for “C.Q.F.D.” More than a festival booking, it signals how a sharply observed, culturally layered short film can travel across audiences while keeping its human core intact.
