Rabat – Moroccan film “Haut et Fort” (Casablanca Beats) of the Moroccan-French director Nabil Ayouch won the Best Music Award at the 2021 Carthage Film Days (JCC) organized in Tunis from October 30 to November 6.
The Tunisian award is the latest in a series of international accolades to have greeted Ayouch’s riveting coming-of-age film. Earlier this year, “Haut et Fort” was nominated in the official competition of the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
In September, the Moroccan Centre for Cinematography (CCM) announced that “Casablanca Beats” was the first Moroccan film to be shortlisted for the 2022 Oscars to represent the North African country in the “Best international film” category.
The film tells the story of youth in the district of Sidi Moumen, Casablanca, with a social and artistic view of the rap scene in Morocco. Throughout the film, Ayouch lifts cliches around hip-hop culture and popular misperceptions about music in a country torn between tradition and modernity.
During the Tunisian film festival, the Carthage Pro platform of the JCC presented the feature film “Hayech Mayech’ by Moroccan director Hicham Lasri was awarded with the award of the International Organization of La Francophonie, endowed with a reward of 10,000 euros.
The French-speaking film “Jean Genet, our father of flowers” by Moroccan Dalila Ennadre was part of the festival’s program to represent the cultural variety of the French-speaking space as part of the “JCC et Francophonie” section.
The JCC saw the participation of several other Moroccan films such as “Jeans” of Mohamed Bouhari in the “short films of fiction” category.
Meanwhile, Sofia Alaoui’s film “What does it matter if the animals die?” was included in the “official selection out of competition” category alongside “The gift” by Palestinian Farah Nabulsi, “AL-SIT” by Sudanese Suzannah Mirghani, “Ward and the Henna Festival” and “Foam” by the Egyptians Morad Mostafa and Omar Elhamy respectively.
“The School of Hope” and “Last Round” by Moroccans Mohamed El Aboudi and Mohamed Fekrane were screened as part of the “Out of Competition Feature Films” category alongside Lebanese productions “Costa Brava, Lebanon” by Mounia Akl and “The Anger” by Maria Ivanova.
Meanwhile, Egyptian film “Feathers” by Omar Zohairy won the Golden Tanit, which is the highest distinction of the Tunisian festival. The film also won the prize for best screenplay, while actress Demyana Nassar received the best female performance award.
The 2021 Carthage Film Days was chaired by Italian producer Enzo Porcelli with several jury members: Moroccan filmmaker Daoud Aoulad Syad, Angolan actor Hoji Fortuna, Haitian director Gessica Généus, Tunisian journalist and writer Sofien Ben Farhat, Egyptian critic Tarek Shenawy, and Iranian director Ahmad Bahrami.
