La Mercè. Guest City: Casablanca

Film screening.

The largest city in Morocco, Casablanca is this year's guest city at the La Mercè festivities. To mark this guest-city status we will be screening Haut et fort, a film that celebrates youth culture, music and art as powerful tools for social change, offering a fresh, modern view of a city and of a country often perceived through stereotypes. The film, chosen for the official section of the Cannes Film Festival, has helped to improve understanding and appreciation of the cultural diversity of this vibrant and historic city.

Haut et fort Casablanca Beats

NABIL AYOUCH, 2021. Int.: Ismail Adouab, Nouhaila Arif, Zineb Boujemaa, Meryem Nekkach, Abdelilah Basbousi, Samah Baricou, Anas Basbousi. Morocco- France Original version with Spanish subtitles. 101'.

Former rapper Anas (Anas Basbousi) takes a job at a cultural centre in Sidi Moumen, a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca. Encouraged by their new teacher, his students try to liberate themselves from the burden of restrictive traditions and express themselves through hip-hop. However, the project clashes head-on with local residents who believe it goes against their moral precepts. “The film, always upbeat and looking to the future, never falls into utopianism and reminds us that freedom of expression is not a universal right. With the help of a few political references, it shows us how far we still have to go for music to be accepted as a tool of protest for the most disadvantaged” (Anthony Jammot).

Free session.

Sala Chomón