At last, Mohamed Benhsain is the right man in the right place

Written by Allal El Alaoui

                  The dispatching news of the elected director Mohamed Benhsain spearheading officially the National Mohammed V Theatre in Rabat by the prime minister of Morocco Abdelilah Benkirane,has poured too much ink in favor of this new resourceful director. Today's news is welcomed by all artists, actors, actresses, technicians mainly theatre-goers.

                In the eyes of many, Mohamed Benhsain is the right man in the right place especially Mohamed is linked to many relationships and friendships with actors, artists and media alike.

               Benhsain loves theatre and artistic shows and he has obviously been showing great devotion to his work along with his good assistants and theatre –goers who work with him hand in hand since 3 years..

              By his intelligent and quiet look, Benhsain would welcome you to follow his programs whether you are a journalist, actor, weblogger film maker or even a student .The important thing for him is to see his efforts as a director through public eyes. In his first statement, Benhsain said that  this election is an  honor for him, stating his desire to continue to do everything in its power to live up to the responsibility entrusted to him , for the good of creativity and creators in Morocco.

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See the king on the moon by Nabil Lahlou

Written by Allal El Alaoui

                 Nabil Lahlou is a unique artist in Morocco.This is a confirmation not only from me but,and i would reckon from all nearly all critics  engaged to write about arts especially about theatre and cinema.

               My first meeting with Nabil was in 2006 at the International Film Festival in Marrakech.Nabil is talkative,smart but he is full of ideas,full of energy and will.This man could right put you  into your place when you mislead or misundestand actors and cinema-goers in Morocco.He is also a fierce fighting man for the sake of theatre and cinema.He is hoping  to see one day his country free from corruption and fraud and culture will invade minds and souls of Moroccans.In fact, Nabil's movies are mysterious to tackle touchy subjects of a developping country called  Morocco

             I was invited by him personally to see his new movie called "See the king on the moon" whose leading role is his wife Sofia.It is an interesting movie almost an epic one dealing with history of Morocco. it all begins with the 19th heroic figures until our modern times tackling also melancholia of artists and their passion and love for  theatre and movies  .I have decided to go to La Place Des pitries , a middle class area in Rabat where Nabil lives just to have a chat with him  about his film .

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Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino

 

                After having won the Golden Globe for his western script, Tarantino has shocked the journalists using the forbidden word in America "Negro".

             The latest film of Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained, is one of those things that do not leave you indifferent. For sensitive souls, attuned to the stories that celebrate the good feelings, this film may be unsustainable by the violence of some scenes. However, for seasoned moviegoers who know how to back or are a little bit familiar with film experiences such as Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone) or Apocalyptico (Mel Gibson), Django deserves to be discovered, because in- Beyond the violence inherent in such data and in western world especially, there are all the rest, that is to say, all the other ingredients that make this film one of those who count in the film making of the genre.

             However, it will be unfair to consider this film as the best of Tarantino since Pulp fiction - with this indefinable something in addition, making an aesthetic object firmly changing.

            Django Unchained is certainly a baroque work, full of energy, and heterogeneous: from Greek mythology to the world of ancient Germanic legends, Western Spaghetti Alexander Eisenstein (see again and again the scene of the Ku Klux Klan ride) and the hell of slavery, the horrors of colonization.

          But this work is especially disturbing an object by its impurity: a work halfway between pure entertainment (series B film) and great auteur cinema, that is to say, this category of works of self-reflexive carriers a transcendent aesthetic dimension. On one hand, he self-identifies as Remake of an old Western Spaghetti by Sergio Leone, Django, considered at its output in 1966, as one of the most violent kind.

                    On the other hand, Tarantino's Django is a genre film, more than entertainment. If surprise and confusion, is that he has the stuff you love this great movie: one where we visit the past of  America, namely the horrors of the slave trade with this criticism and uncompromising look that only know to deploy the great masters of American cinema.

                 In short, a real lesson in screenwriting history, which contrasts sharply with those practiced by the old continent, particularly in some nations, the heavy colonial past, where there is this habit of visiting history to justify the horrors, often for purposes of self-congratulation.

               Finally, , Django can also be seen as conveying an unsuspected political dimension, and the receipt escapes the intentions of the authors of the screenplay. And because it is intended, rather, to the public of the south, and especially to those engaged in the process of unequal struggles against their local masters;Django remains an attractive movie to cinema-goers and to large public . And, of these, can we see a perfect incarnation in the person of sadistic slave Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

              Tarantino is a film maker who can not miss any new movies .Since his Kill Bill , too many webloggers around the world have written to him to write a a third version of the Kill Bill series .But, Taranatino prefers to go back to the past of his country to visit its horrors  and injustices .Better yet, it's all the narrative of the film Django that unfolds gradually, as an irresistible call to freedom.

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Cinébassamat illuminates Rabat this spring

written by Allal El Alaoui

              The fifth edition of theFilm Festival Bassamat , which will be held from6 to 9 April in Rabat, will be dedicated to the late Mohamed Kacimi.Kuwaitwill be the guest of honor of thefestival with a special tribute to director MohamedHashimi.

            
                In partnership with the Kuwaiti Cinema Club and Film Palestinian Forum in Gaza, the fifth festival Cinébassamat opens its 2013 official competition, the deadline of the films was determined by the organizers to 8 March .

             "This partnership reflects our openness to other cultures and civilizations to exchange our ideas and knowledge, and create a bridge between our respective peoples. It is also a way to discover the seventh art of Arab and International countries and seek opportunities for collaboration between our filmmakers. Our partnership is based on three axes, the exchange of films, conferences of both sides, the organization of field visits in order to know the potential of Morocco. Thus, the festival is a strong platform enough to achieve these objectives, including the highlight film talents of our country, said Abdou Haimer, president of the festival.

            Competing short films selected by a special committee which is to meet the criteria imposed by the festival. This year, the theme dealing with visual arts will be added to the various stories of participating films, and in tribute to the famous painter, the late Mohamed Kacimi.

          "By dedicating this edition to Mohamed Kacimi, we pay tribute to this great man of the arts, poet, philosopher and fervent activist for human rights. It is recognition of the festival for everything he has done in this direction. Then, we estimate that through this choice to create a dialogue between cinema and the visual arts, knowing that many film experiments have addressed this issue. This is what encouraged us to take this step, "says the president of Cinébassamat.

       Other tributes are planned for this year, including directors Mohamed Hashim (Kuwait), Abdellah Mesbahi (Morocco) and another dedicated to Brahim Sayeh, the pioneer of dubbing in Morocco, with the organization of a conference on the same theme. "Our festival is a melting pot which can express a lot of young talents. Our goal is to contribute to the cultural and artistic landscape, through which citizen projects fall within the framework of sustainable development.

         We have done a long way starting with feature films (2008, 2009 and 2010) although wa lacked   financial resources. It is also a good choice, since it fits into our aspirations to help young people to make themselves known through their productions, "says Abdou Haimer.

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The youth of Benkirane

 writen by Allal El Alaoui

                  we all agree that young people are forgotten completely in a society where egoism and marginalization are overtaken the mentalities of citizenship. No government has yet succeeded to satisfy the needs of Moroccan youth. In contrast of this evidence, Moroccan youth practices all sort of forbidden pleasures such as drugs, uncontrolled sex,”Hrig” literary meaning immigration etc. According to the youth of Morocco, these blissful elements help them to forget their extreme poverty and war so as to look for earthly heaven, and in search of a better life.

               No doubt, the need to express themselves has reshaped in a political way called already the movement of 20 of February. They think through continuous fighting that corruption and fraud should be fought hardly and that the head of state should open high horizons and opportunities to participate actively in economic and social development of Morocco. they desire to be serious and reliable partner in any project and policy affecting both their society and its movement. From this context, new era of expressing their needs has opened many paths especially the use of facebook, twitters and blogs.  These digital tools have become important to confirm their existence.

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The unity of Rabat and Salé prophecied by Ahmed Tayed Laalej in 2020

            

 Written by Allal El Alaoui

             Ahmed Tayeb Laalej is sealed in our memory. Morocco's favorite speaking arabic actor right after the independence  although "La maison du theatre" was controlled by French speaking people such as Taeb Saddki and its director Pierre Lucas who spearhead  Rabat Theatre house with great devotion and love .Pierre admired the talent of Tayeb and his love of theatre  .Si Ahmed as he was called by his colleagues left his job as carpenter in Fez and immigrated to Salé where he was for the first time settled and later on  he moved to Rabat where he wrote his song about Rabat and Salé .This song was sung by both slawi and rbaty people that time.

             Laaj was a man of wit and exquisincy.Not only he was a poet but he was also a dramaturge and song writer. I went to his private home in Rabat in order to interview him about the unity of Rabat and Salé int 2020 .A time of certainty of two cities that will unite  inoto one sole city ,already forseen by a Fassi artist who had certainly assured his audience  of that  remarkable year for those two cities because they will be metamorphosed into a cosmopolitan city called simply Rabat-Salé.

              Taib Laalej wrote good Arabic and loved Moliere too much that he moroconized his plays and transformed them in televison.He adapted “le malade imaginaire” by Moliere which became in Moroccan slung “Amrid bel Wahm”,Awicha" and “Lalla Abouche” that play had toured Europe performed by national theatre team that  included Safia Ziani, Mohamed Afifi,Taeb Sadiki and Khadija Jamal.These players  were  invited by the king of Belgium to play that play before him. Of course, King Hassan the second was there and they were extremely happy aboet their performance especially its translation into Arabic by Ahmed Taeb Laaj.

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Young cinema or cinema of the youth

Written by Allal El Alaoui

            It is indeed a complex question whether there is a cinema of the youth or young cinema, but obviously there is young cinema or simply young people who have been successful to make beautiful movies such as OrsonWelles, Sam Peckinpah and Truffaut not forgetting some Arab film makers who have been good to produce handsome movies when they were in the early age naming for example Shadi Abdel Salam, Youssef Chahineand Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina

            There is a French proverb that says "If only young people know and if only old people can". It is true that young people are asked to dare in order to write and realize their own vision in movies. However, how can youth create knowing that their minds are old? It is a sort of phobia that young people of Morocco are suffering from today especially this question is remarked by too many university professors either in Marrakech; Rabat, Casablanca, or even Fez.

            Young people are confronted with two main elements that influence them in making their careers. First is money I mean to say Box office .I know a young film maker living in Salé who is  continuously cursing system by scorning official head masters of media .However, his rage is not translated in cinema. He is trapped into box offices headaches and of course the size of money that he can make out of it. Unless for example an Indian film maker , Yash Shopra,recently died  who works silently but makes controversial movies already marked in history of cinema of entertainmentnaming for example his beautiful film called  Veer-Zaarathat was successful to  unite two  struggling countries Pakistan and India. Because of this strong message of this film, frontiers between these two countries are open. From this context, I want our young people to use their rage in making cinema like the one of Shopra.

           The second thing that faces young people is creation or art. Art films are not easily made. But, creation can be fruitful if they work on it by hard work like reading international and national books, watching all kind of movies and discuss them with lucid and intelligent minds. Participating in film festivals can help to create criteria mind either in amateur film festival or professional one. Amateur film festival sometimes surprises us with introducing beautiful films. But if an amateur film festival intends only to make controversy or money then things become difficult. This happens Kalaat Des Sraghna Short Film Festival  with Mustapha Chaabi's short film called "Al Qods Abnadem" and my short film called" The will" that were selected in competition .At the end, when the jury presents awards, its head master Mohamed chwika states that our films named above can not be awarded because they are too professionals. Why do film festival director call professionals film makers then? What is the game? I can not get it.

I call all young people to work hard and start make movies using all sort of simple media tools that exist now in the market like I phone  cameras, simple editing sofwares, Cameras with SD or HD cards , using studio or artificial lightings if it is possible  especially write movies with the help professional actors and actresses and of course with film makers too. Insist to work and produce beautiful films especially filming our vision our dreams that still invade us whenever we are .This love of cinema and this rage in us will help us to refuse to be unproductive i mean to say to be old. 

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