Mohamed El Aboudi
2021School of Hope
Mohamed El Aboudi
Kaddour Errahmany, Mohamed Errahmany
In the vast expanse of desert East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end. Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground. Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a "school of hope" built of clay. Following both the students and the teachers in the Oulad Boukais Tribe's community school for over three years, SCHOOL OF HOPE shows students Mohamed, Miloud, Fatima, and their classmates, responding with childish glee to the school's altruistic young teacher, Mohamed. Each child faces individual obstacles - supporting their aging parents; avoiding restrictions from relatives based on traditional gender roles - while their young teacher makes do in a house with no electricity or water.
School of Hope
Häätanssi
Mohamed El Aboudi
Hanan Ryahi, Bilal
A film about a woman who doesn’t exist. Moroccan Hind was raped and consequently denied an official identity – she has no other choice but to work as a prostitute and traditional wedding dancer, but despite the odds of her situation, refuses to give up her dream of dignity, motherhood and love. This is a story of modern day outlaws, children of prostitutes, abandoned child brides and those who have had to escape to the fringes of patriarchal Moroccan society. Through the eyes of one young woman we see a life of constant struggle, but also a life free of the society’s norms and boundaries. The woman in the centre of the film, Hind, is both vulnerable and courageous as she tries to regain her life, her children and her mere right to live as an equal human being in the 21st century.
Dance of Outlaws
