Directed by the Franco-Moroccan Nabil Ayouch,
Say It Loud and Loud (Casablanca Beats)
takes place in the classrooms of an art school located northeast of Casablanca, in Sidi Moumen, one of the poorest suburbs of Morocco.
The film holds the honor of being the first from its country to enter the official selection of the Cannes festival thanks to a story of youth improvement through music and dance.
In this kind of
Fame
Moroccan, the story of a rap teacher and his students forms a musical and emotional puzzle through which the youthful conflicts of a country marked by economic precariousness, religious radicalization and attacks on women's rights slip through.
His characters combat this marginality, in a somewhat predictable and naive way, through hip-hop and dance.
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The director explained that the film reflects his own experience (he approached cinema and theater thanks to a similar educational center) but, above all, that of the Positive School of Hip Hop program at the Sidi Moumen school.
Ayouch began to attend as a listener to some classes that are the embryo of a script that includes the songs that the students themselves wrote together with his teacher.
The Moroccan rapper and actor Anas Basbousi is the central figure of the film.
A teacher who fully complies with the stereotype of the lonely and demanding teacher and who, despite some interesting brushstrokes, lacks a dramatic path in his involvement with a group of students for whom his classes are everything.
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Despite the predominant naturalistic tone, Ayouch introduces artificial musical pills that don't quite work either.
While the dance of one of the students on a rooftop, entangled between the ropes and the clothes of a clothing store, manages to express the pain caused by a society that gags its women, the rest of the numbers are generally below par. that achievement.
Still, the best thing about
Say It Loud and Loud
is her open simplicity and her faith in what counts.
say it loud and loud
Directed by:
Nabil Ayouch.
Performers:
Anas Basbousi, Ismail Adouab, Nouhaila Arif, Zineb Boujemaa.
Genre:
musical.
Morocco, 2021.
Duration:
101 minutes.
Premiere: December 21.
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