Tetouan — Moroccan filmmaker Nour-Eddine Lakhmari presented “Mira” at the Tetouan Mediterranean Film Festival this week, joining members of the cast and crew for the film’s screening in the northern city.
Written and directed by Lakhmari, the Morocco-Saudi Arabia production centers on Mira, a 13-year-old girl living in a small Middle Atlas village. The film is part of the festival’s 31st edition, which runs through October 10.
For Lakhmari, the film begins with the core idea of how people see one another.
“You cannot love yourself if you do not love others, especially those who come from far away,” Lakhmari told Lifestyle magazine.
That lesson is passed to Mira by her father before his death and becomes central to how she moves through the world.
Seeing people beyond labels
Mira lives close to the forest, where she protects birds caught in hunters’ traps. She also encounters migrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempting to continue their journeys toward Europe.
Lakhmari said Mira does not look at them through the label often used for irregular migrants in Morocco.
“Even when people call them ‘harraga,’ she does not see them as harraga,” he said. “She sees people searching for dignity, searching for a life.”
Her instinct to help them is not presented as pity. “She helps them because she has a vision of the human being,” Lakhmari explained.
That same outlook extends to the forest around her. For the filmmaker, Mira’s concern for people and her protection of animals are connected by a broader spiritual idea.
“There is a spirituality in the film,” he said. “The only way we can live in this life and find peace is to love ourselves and love other people.”
The 107-minute Darija-language film also follows Mira’s relationships with her grandmother Zainab and her teacher Lamia. Together, the three generations confront different ideas about freedom, protection, tradition, and personal choice.
Lakhmari returns with a new generation at the center
“Mira” marks another chapter in a filmography that includes “Le Regard,” “Casanegra,” “Zero,” and “Burnout.”
This time, Lakhmari places a teenage girl at the center of questions that extend beyond childhood, connecting migration and dignity with freedom, belonging, and the relationship between people and nature.
The film stars Safae Khatami as Mira, alongside Zaynab Lalj, Fatima Atif, Omar Lotfi, Moussa Sylla, and Ismail El Fallahi. Lakhmari also produced the film with Fadila Taha.
El Fallahi, who plays Yazid, described working with Lakhmari as an important experience in his development as an actor.
“Working with Nour-Eddine was a very positive experience,” El Fallahi told Lifestyle magazine. “He is one of those directors you learn from while working.”
He added that collaborating with a filmmaker of Lakhmari’s experience “benefits your career and helps you develop your talent as an actor.”
For El Fallahi, Tetouan also offered an opportunity to encounter audiences before the film reaches Moroccan cinemas.
“We want to see how the Tetouan audience will receive the film,” he said.
In Tetouan, however, the focus of “Mira” remains firmly on Lakhmari’s central question: whether seeing another person beyond labels can itself become an act of freedom.
