Fez — Moroccan filmmaker Yassine El Idrissi is taking “Halima” to Brazil, where the drama will screen during the 28th edition of Festival do Rio, Latin America’s biggest international film festival.

The Rio de Janeiro festival runs from October 1 to 11. Its official program lists three screenings of “Halima” on October 3, October 6, and October 10.

The Brazilian appearance follows a successful world premiere for the film at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June. El Idrissi won Best Director in the Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition, while Khadija Amari received Best Actress for her performance as Halima.

In a previous interview with MWN Lifestyle magazine, El Idrissi reflected on the Shanghai recognition and the difficult road behind the independently produced film. The filmmaker said the two awards showed that the jury had found “something distinctive” in “Halima,” while arguing that its success should also prompt a wider discussion about funding, opportunities for younger filmmakers, and Morocco’s presence on the international festival circuit.

A quiet life with a buried past

At 86, Halima lives modestly by the sea with her husband, gathering and selling mussels to make a living.

Behind that seemingly peaceful routine lies a past she has tried to leave behind.

Years earlier, Halima lived alone in an isolated house in Morocco’s Rif Mountains. When an environmental project required local residents to relocate, she refused to leave, determined to hold onto the home and the memories of her late first husband.

The Festival do Rio synopsis reveals that Halima’s resistance concealed another reality. After losing her livestock and source of income, she began allowing hashish smugglers to use her home as a hideout.

The story moves between an apparently ordinary present and the choices Halima made while trying to survive, placing an elderly Moroccan woman at the center of questions surrounding poverty, memory, displacement, and dignity.

From photojournalism to cinema

El Idrissi began his career as a photojournalist before moving into filmmaking, an experience that shaped how he observed people and communities across Morocco.

The Shanghai International Film Festival notes that he later studied film directing at the Netherlands Film Academy and has continued to center human and social questions throughout his work.

That background feels closely connected to “Halima,” whose protagonist belongs to a world rarely placed at the center of a feature film.

Rather than approaching her simply through hardship, the film follows a woman carrying memory, stubbornness, survival, humor, and the consequences of choices made under pressure.

The Shanghai festival also records “Halima” as an 85-minute Moroccan drama in Arabic that had its world premiere on June 15.

Alongside Khadija Amari, the cast includes Rabii El Fakih, Driss Assamadi, Mustapha Chougane, Achraf Tahiri, Omar Beloud, Omar Hatim, Walid Wafi, and others.

From Shanghai to Rio

“Halima” will first screen in Rio on October 3 at Estação Claro Rio 4, followed by an October 6 showing at Cinesystem Belas Artes Botafogo 2 and an October 10 screening at CineCarioca José Wilker 2.

The three screenings give the film another international platform only months after its double recognition in Shanghai.

Following an elderly Moroccan woman whose quiet life masks a complex history, “Halima” takes a deeply local story to international screens.

Traveling from the Rif Mountains to Shanghai and Rio de Janeiro, the film explores memory, survival, dignity, and lives lived at society’s margins.