Director Nabil Ayouch Producer Nabil Ayouch, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Eric Van Beuren, Patrick Quinet Screenwriter Jamal Belmahi With Abdelhakim Rachid, Abdelilah Rachid, Hamza Souidek Morocco-France-Belgium 2012 Ayouch’s film follows two brothers over the course of a decade. While they begin as kids in search of thrills in the sprawling slums of Morocco’s Sidi Moumen, we witness their gradual, and ultimately shocking, radicalisation. Rather than opt for dry didacticism, however, Ayouch fashions a visually sumptuous and often breathless coming-of-age story that is reminiscent, at times, of Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, albeit with a tragic twist in the tale. A major achievement by one of North Africa’s most important filmmakers.
