Hakim Belabbes

Boujad: A Nest in the Heat

Hakim Belabbes

Hakim Belabbes

Boujad: A Nest In the Heat is a personal and anguishing look at issues of separation, independence and return. As director Hakim Belabbes chronicles his journey from his home in Chicago to visit his family in his hometown of Boujad in Morocco, his exploration of family relationships is self-conscious and at times painfully honest. We witness his most private moments with his family. Belabbes' film intimately explores the domestic spaces and religious rituals of intra-family relationships, especially when compounded by one member's break with traditional values.

Shi ghadi ou shi jay

Hakim Belabbes

Mohamed Benbrahim, Houda Sedki

In a tiny Moroccan village, a young father plans his illegal crossing into Spain. He assures his wife that he will telephone her three days after his departure, to confirm his safe arrival in Spain. However, the call never comes. |

Ashlaa

Hakim Belabbes

An unflinchingly intimate chronicle of the filmmaker’s family in Morocco, made from footage collected over more than a decade, In Pieces captures the passage of time across generations. It is a poetic account of a country, as Belabbes, an eccentric figure in Moroccan cinema, records the extent to which larger social and political change has—or has not—affected his modest family. Narrated in a hybrid of first-person plural and singular, the film gracefully shifts between fiction and nonfiction.

Pluie de sueur

Hakim Belabbes

Fatima Zahra Bennacer, Amine Ennaji

A both empathic and poetic drama set in the Moroccan countryside. Family, poverty, work and pride are the most important motivations of M’Barek, a poor farmer who fights to pay off his debts so that he can keep his land.

Whispers

Hakim Belabbes

Caught between chasing his past and accepting his impending end, a man follows his childhood memories through the dark alleyways and desolate cemeteries of Boujad, Morocco.

Defining Love: A Failed Attempt

Hakim Belabbes

Zineb Ennajem, Hamza Abderrazik

Hamza and Zineb travel to a remote area in the Atlas mountains in Morocco to research for parts they’re supposed to play in an upcoming rendition of the legend of Isli and Tisselt – a tale of two lovers whose tears are believed to have created the two lakes that bear their name.